tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155Mon, 16 Oct 2017 13:02:24 +0000RealizationEnlightenmentnon-dualitypeacenon-duality ebooksMark Houstonalcoholism treatmentself-helpaddictionenneagramNisargadatta Maharajhappinesstwelve stepsworking the twelve stepsSri Nisargadatta Maharajego-statespersonasconsciousnessbehavioral psychologydesiresfreedomdualityfearsmindegopersonalitypersonality disordersnothingnessNarcissismmemoriesrole-playingunicityAwarenessMultiple Personality Disorderde-accumulationemotional intoxicationinsanityBury My Heart at Wounded KneeaccumulationarrogancebrainconditioningdenialLoveRelationshipsmental illnessprogrammingsatsangaspiritualitythe voidzero conceptsAddictive Personality DisorderAntisocial Personality DisorderCo-DependencyNarcissistic Personality DisorderThe Absolutebeingnesschaoscorrupted consciousnessfalse identitiesknowledgelearned ignorancenatural livingneo-Advaitapersonality defectsreligionAdvaitaCherokeeDependencyDissociative Identity DisorderNisarga (natural) YogaNoumenonParent-Adult-ChildSchizoidThe Myth of a Divine Planaddictive personalitybeliefscyclesdelusionsdepressiondogmaego-defense mechanismsegotismenergyillusionliberationnaturalnon-beingnessperipetiaphenomenalsamskarassilencespacesupernaturalthought-word-deedunnaturalAbrahamBrahmanDIDDirect Path MethodHigher PowerI AM THAT; I AMMother TeresaMurder RateNeo-VedantaNirvanaNisarga YogaParent-ChildRick PerryTraditional AdvaitaVoida dual-minded mananagnorisisarchetypesas if livingattachmentbi-polarbody-mind-personalitybondage of egocatharsiscommuniondelusiondistortionfaithforest dwellerfreedom from personalitygodholyidentificationillusionsimmature adultsimpressionsinstabilityjnaniskarma mythlilamythsniggerheadno identitynon-duality booksonenessphotosynthesispowerproselytizingrealityreincarnation mythrepetition compulsionstresssuperstitionstranscendentalismtraumaunity beyond the multiplicityzero gain or loss" consciousness in motion"Genesis" Vacuum"Native American""sacred contract" mythAdvaita VedantaAdvaita philosophyAryansCharles EastmanDSM-IVFreudGehannaGod ComplexI AM THAT I AMImmanuel KantKing BabyLakotaNPDOneness and True LoveOriah Mountain DreamerParanoidPavlovSelfShankaracharyaSri Ramana MaharshiSuicide RateTexasThe Laws of ThermodynamicsTheater of the LieThornton WilderTrue SelfUpanishadsVirginia Tech shootingabnormal behaviorabstractabusedabusersadvaita vedanta retreatsalcoholatomsblind faithblissborn again mythbrain evolutionchangecharacter defectsconceptsconcretecontrolcreation mythsdeathdesiredeviant behaviordirect pathdistorted memorydivorcedoingnessego-generated noiseelectronsemptinessenculturationentitlemententrapmentexpectationsfalse selffearfree willfreedom from programminghumilityil dolce di fare nienteimagesinner gurulabelsliving in the mirrorliving spontaneouslymarriagemental imprisonmentmiragemiserynationalistic arroganceno beliefsnownullpeace of "mind"peace of mindpowerlessnessprejudicepsychosispsychotherapyrationalizationrebirthreincarnationrelative agendasrelaxing and taking it easyreligious role-playingrepublican presidential candidatesrolessatsangschizophreniasleepwalkingsolitude vs. isolationspiritual exercisesspiritual growthsufferingsuicidesundown townssupernatural livingsupernatural thinkingthe Advaitan Christthe samadhi statethe world is in youtreatmentunnatural livingwisdomwitnessing" happiness" love and chemistry" satsanga"No birth-no death""The Enabler""The Rescuer""but we've always done it that way""love"peace of mind"relationships"relationships""relationships" True Love"the sacred contract" mythAAAPAActualizationAdvaita classesAdvaita retreatsAge of EnlightenmentAlbert EinsteinAlice in WonderlandAnglo-Saxon "gud"Anglo-SaxonsAnti-SocialArmageddonAssuming the I am God IdentityAtmanAtrophyAvoidantBabajiBibleBig BookBlack ElkBook of RevelationBrahmaBrooke Medicine EagleBuddhaChief SeattleChild Ignorance StageChopraChristChrist the Advaita TeacherChrist the AdvaitinChristianity's pagan rootsChristopher HitchensDependentDon ImusDustin LindenSmithDyerEdward GibbonElegy Written in a Country ChurchyardEmotional IncestEntropyFar from the Madding CrowdGoodeHBOHadesHeineHellHenry David ThoreauHis Majesty the BabyHistrionic DisorderI AMI Am GodI-AmnessIndependence DayIndigenousIndigenous PeoplesIs-nessJacques DerridaJerry M. 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RelativityThe Twice-Stolen Necklace MurdersThomas GrayThomas HardyThoreauThrough the Looking GlassTolleTorahTransactional AnalysisTrue WitnessTruthTsalagiType FourU.S. homicidesUnconditional LoveUteUttara MimamsaVedantaVedicWaiteWheelerWhite EagleWildeWilliam ShakespeareWounded KneeYour "Sacred Cows"Zambiaa child withinabidance as the Absoluteabsenceabsolutesacceptanceaccepting the unmanifestationadvaita and "relationships"advaita quotesalcoholismam-nessan incredible lightness of beinganalytical psycholofyangelsangerangry godappearance onlyat-onementattachment disorderawareness vs. consciousnessbeing freebeing haunted by attachment to a parent's beliefsbeing independentbeyond consciousnessbeyond spiritualbeyond spiritualitybondagebrain-trashingbrain-washingbrainwashing by businessesbreathcancercase studieschildhoodchildishchoiceclinical depressioncodependencycognitive functioningcommon senseconception conceptsconscious contactconsciousness in motionconsciousness 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resourceinstitutional dualityinstitutionalized dualityinterdependenciesinternalizationinventing godsinventoryjoiningjoyjudgmentalismjustificationkingdom of heavenlack of empathylcoholism treatmentleaderslearninglesslifelight travelinglilieslimbic brainliviing the lieliving under the influencelogicloving a terrorist godmagical thinkingmaintaining imagesmalignancymanifestmattermedicine menmedicine placemeditationmemory filesmental prisonmentally deformedmigration to the Americasminimalizationminimizemiragesmisperceptionsmisrepresenting the message of Christmoleculesmoralmortality ratesmotivesmuch ado about nothingmultiple personalitynatural vs. unnatural or supernaturalnaturopathic healingnisarga yoga retreatsnisarga yoga systemno body-mind-personality continuityno creationno deerno destructionno floyd or ginny or ronaldno humansno-knowing statenoisy desperationnon-attachmentnormalizationnothing to somethingnoumenalobsession of the mindobstaclesojasorganized religionpagan influencesparanoiaparent as godpastpermanencepersonalpersonality traitspersonality typesphobiaspietyplanplant food bodiespower and controlpowerlesspresencepropensity for war and killingpseudo-Realizationpsychiatrypurificationquiet desperationracismragerain godraja yogare-purificationreal freedomreal independencerebirth mythreflectionsreificationrelativerelative attachmentsreligion vs. philosophyreligiousreligious and spiritual knowledge is learned ignorancereligious brainwashingreligious programmingrepetition conpulsionresurrection mythsacrificescience and non-dualityscientific methodsearchingseekingself-delusions regarding "love"self-imageself-improvementsense of separationseparationsepsisseven degrees of separationseven degrees of separation from realityseven-step journeyshadow selfshedding bloodsheep-like behaviorshift in consciousnesssituational depressionslaughter of Native Americans and Jewssleepwalking parentssnake in a ropesociopathssolitudeson of man vs. son of godsparticlesspiritspirit journeyspiritual arrogancespiritual practicesspiritual retreatsspiritual role-playingspiritual sobrietyspousal murderstabilitystagessteps to Realizationstringssubatomic particlessubconscious motivationssubject-objectsupposedly evil womensurrendertemporary insanitythe "Virgin" Marythe Advaitin Christthe Brahman conceptthe Child Kingthe God Complexthe God Complex Personality Disorderthe Isvara conceptthe Myth of Birththe Myth of Deaththe Nowthe Santa/God syndromethe birth myththe body identification myththe child withinthe death myththe dreamthe early days of awakeningthe emptiness vs. full of selfthe eternal life myththe first communionthe guruthe heaven-hell myththe helper's highthe higher inquirythe illusion of "lifestyle"the illusion of "mind"the journeythe judgment myththe lord's supperthe myth of "holy"the myth of "something"the myth of "spiritual knowledge"the nightmarethe one god theorythe paththe playthe present momentthe rabbit holethe relativethe reward-punishment myththe sacramentsthe searchthe sourcethe spacethe timeline myththeravadathey want you to shut upthinking mindthorns used to remove thornsthree body typestithingtolerancetranscendtranscendencetranspersonaltrauma effectstrue freedomtruly freetwisted psycheunhealthy psycheunionunmanifestunstableunstable mindsupgrading illusionsvasanasvibrational frequenciesvirgin birthvirgin birth mythsvisionswarwarped consciousnesswarped mindwarping the consciousnesswave and particle formwhy most marry nowadaysworking mindyou are not in the worldzenAdvaita VedantaA non-duality forum offering Direct Path and Nisargan considerations in simple language in order to address the actual roots of the Ultimate Sickness and to allow for natural abidance thereafterhttp://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)Blogger3214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-2229854248705677658Mon, 16 Oct 2017 13:02:00 +00002017-10-16T09:02:24.346-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Twelve<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some answers have been already been offered in the eBook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-only-three-hours-of-manifestation-remain.php">WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson)&nbsp;</a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, answer #11 to the question "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?" is this:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>For those tired of the phoniness and therefore seeking authenticity, this deal is about being shown how to listen to the beat of your inner guru and then how to allow that to be the drum which provides the beat to which you march.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To review some pointers previously offered:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** Find the simplest version of these teachings. Do not complicate the process, and do not allow others to complicate the process for you.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** Seek and accept only that which leads to the ability to abide naturally and spontaneously and unaffectedly and effortlessly.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** End all efforts to replace former "bad" labels and roles with "new and improved and upgraded and noble labels and roles."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** Reality is non-dual and is identity-less and is concept-less, so why put your life "on hold" for decades while trying to determine if you are "an Infinite Self" or "a Supreme Self" or "The Most Superior Self" when - in the end - You are to see the reality of the no-identity, no-concept, non-dual Nothingness?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** Everything in the relative is much ado about nothing, and everything in the Absolute is also much ado about nothing. There is no "later," no "judgment," and no "eternal reward" or "eternal punishment," so abide naturally, now, and stop being so damn serious. Just be, instead. Relax. Enjoy.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** Understand that, while the relative existence will never be stable, That Which You Are is that which can be fixed and pure and stable and unadulterated when the abidance happens naturally as the Pure and Total Awareness.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** Question everything and everyone in order to eventually understand this: Truth can be known but cannot be spoken. (No matter what you might think is true, and no matter how much you might be inspired to take exception and say, "Well, Floyd, I do know for certain that 'a' is true and that 'b' is true," this speck will always be able to provide examples of instances where both your "a" belief and your "b" concept are not true at all).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** See that programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination provided the means by which "they" accepted as fact (without any questioning and with blind faith alone) what became their learned ignorance; then, see that "their" programming, conditioning, domestication and acculturation of you transferred "their" learned ignorance to you if you did not question "them" and everything they told you and taught you.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">** And now, if seeking authenticity, listen to the beat of your inner guru and allow that to be the drum that provides the beat to which you march. That can only happen if you understand that the term "conventional wisdom” is an oxymoron.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the "convention wisdom" convinces persons that they are the many roles which they have been assigned or have adopted as identities, actual wisdom is knowing that You are nothing. All that is thought to a part of the "conventional wisdom" is actually the learned ignorance that is widely-accepted among the masses as being factual when, in actual fact, the body of "conventional wisdom" contains instead only non-truths and hearsay and myths and superstitions and bogus concepts and nonsensical beliefs and distorted ideas.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To march to the beat of those who are in step with the cadence that is played out on the drums of personality, personality defects, ignorance, and insanity is to fall in line with sheep-like marchers who can only guide you over the edge of the cliff of distortion and illusion and self-deception.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From the realized write Henry David Thoreau:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The so-called "conventional wisdom" is that people must "go along to get along"; actual wisdom is understanding that to go along with those marching blindly in the darkness of ignorance and insanity is not "getting along" at all.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The so-called "conventional wisdom" is that much is understood by humans; actual wisdom is that which the masses have never even once considered, must less understood.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The so-called "conventional wisdom" involves the belief among the masses that they really are the many roles they play; actual wisdom is (a) understanding that they are none of the things that they believe they are and (b) understanding that, in fact, they are nothing.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The so-called "conventional wisdom" among the masses (specifically, the 6,790,000,000 on the planet who claim to be associated with one organized religion or another) is that truth is revealed only in books deemed "holy," in books written (usually) by men who claim that they heard God - or one of many gods - speaking to them;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">actual wisdom is knowing that persons who claim that they are hearing an all-powerful entity speaking to them from another world are either frauds or are psychotics who are admitting that they are suffering from instances of "auditory locution," that they are hearing voices in their heads, and that they are subject to schizophrenia-induced hallucinations.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler explained it this way:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>“Psychosis” refers to a way of thinking and speaking. It depicts an apparent failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real. People are labeled psychotic when they refer to mental representations of the world as if they were substantive and real. Another example of confusion is the description of the "voice of conscience" as the literal voice of another being (known as "hearing voices").&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real may be intentional (artistic license) or strategic (lying) or the result of a cognitive inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. There are three ways of using ”psychosis” to refer to people speaking and behaving in certain ways:&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>(1) Psychosis is used to refer to the state wherein symbolic representations of the world (and metaphors) are confused with the real (literal) things they represent.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>(2) Psychosis is an applicable label when one ascribes confused speech to something else.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>(3) Finally, the term psychosis is also used to describe abnormal speech and behavior.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The doctor added: <i>The schizophrenia referenced earlier is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God has become a socially-acceptable, self-reported imagining among the 97% of programmed and conditioned persons on the planet who proudly proclaim their belief in a god or gods.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qsXHm51kXpI/WeSsfYYGIzI/AAAAAAAAC2g/_TiCos-ziWQd50ycw9dz2I5-dzJaUL07gCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="202" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qsXHm51kXpI/WeSsfYYGIzI/AAAAAAAAC2g/_TiCos-ziWQd50ycw9dz2I5-dzJaUL07gCLcBGAs/s320/retreatpic.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_16.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-1283186560052413969Sun, 15 Oct 2017 14:13:00 +00002017-10-15T10:16:50.397-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Eleven<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;">[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some answers have been already been offered in the eBook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-only-three-hours-of-manifestation-remain.php"><b>WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson)&nbsp;</b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, answer #10 to the question "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?" is this:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Questioning Everything and Everyone </b><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> 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mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: cyan;">"When you are concerned with truth, with reality, you must question everything, your very life."</span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: cyan;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: cyan;">-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj</span></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the years, one question has been asked here more than any other - on this site and in satsang sessions and during retreats - which is: "Is it possible that everything you have ever been taught and everything you have ever been told, by your parents and by relatives and by teachers and by religious leaders and by politicians and by businesses and advertisers and by everyone else, was completely false?"&nbsp;</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is, is it possible that there is no heaven or hell or post-manifestation reward or punishment or post-manifestation beingness or Supreme Beingness?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it possible you do not live in the greatest nation ever?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it possible that you are not different from or better than anyone else . . . and that's okay?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it possible that the persons whom you especially should never believe are those who repeatedly tell you, "Believe me"?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it possible that all among the "non-realized" masses are contaminated by the Ultimate Sickness and therefore are driven by the symptoms of that Sickness (identified by Maharaj as "ignorance, stupidity and insanity") and that those who are most despised by the masses for "marching to the beat of a different drummer" are the few who are realizing or have realized (meaning, been freed or are in the process of being freed of their belief in "learned ignorance")?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj explained: "When you shall begin to question your dream [<i>which in not actually '"your dream" at all but is actually "their dream" which has been passed down for thousands of years</i>] awakening will be not far away."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He advised: "Be alert. Question, observe, investigate. Learn all you can about confusion: how it operates . . . what it does to you and others. By being clear about confusion you become clear of confusion."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those that have come here for satsang or for retreats or those that have read the writings here know that the invitation to be free of the effects of programming, conditioning, domestication, and acculturation is often extended.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be free of belief in "dualities" and "separation" and "different from" and "better than," you must be free of the effects of programming, conditioning, etc. The full discussion of the effects of those factors is book-length, but the key point about those influences in this more abbreviated forum is this:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">if you are not freed from the influences of programming, conditioning, domestication, acculturation, brainwashing and indoctrination, you will be driven unconsciously by the effects of what "they" told you and taught you; and the results of believing what "they" told you and taught you will be misery and suffering and pain.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Therefore, this is the question which seekers are regularly invited to ask regarding "their" tales and teachings: "Is it possible that everything that you have ever been told or taught or now believe is false?" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If such freedom from beliefs does not come, then one will be burdened by a sense of separation, disunity, disharmony, and "two-ness" (or, more accurately, a belief in some multiplicity vs. the unicity).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The consequence of abiding with a sense of separation, disunity, disharmony, and "two-ness" and multiplicity will be the manifestation of more misery and suffering.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the past there has been a discussion of certain cultures which have what they see as a "homogenous" population, and history shows what the effects are when cultures adopt a "different from" and separatist belief (whether the cultures are "homogenous" or not).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[For example, a nation such as the U.S. that is supposedly a "melting pot" can still buy into the arrogant, separatist message of its manipulative leaders who claim that "this is the greatest nation on earth"; in the late 1930's and 1940's, the masses in a nation in Western Europe which had long believed that its people were "a Super Race" began a war against those whom they believed were members of an inferior race, and that war resulted in 85,000,000 people being killed; they were joined by another nation that also considered itself to be populated by a citizenry that was "one, homogenous race" of people who were different from all others.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The history of humankind - when such dualistic and separatist beliefs generate concepts about being "different from" and "better than" - has always been a history of non-realized people engaged in fighting and conflict and war and killing and genocide, and that is true internationally, nationally, locally, and in "individual relationships."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The non-dual understanding can be furthered if one were to understand the implications behind two Eastern (Japanese) terms, specifically, “honne” and “tatemae.” The former term on one level refers to "Real Truth" (Reality / Truth) vs. the latter term which refers to "societal façades."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the West, and around most of the globe, there are not even any terms to use to point to that increasingly-common dualistic belief, so certain Eastern sources can advance the cause of understanding duality and its roots. Thus, this discussion in not really about the Japanese but is about the planet-wide propensity for accepting façades and rejecting Reality.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On another level, "honne" can refer to one's "true feelings."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Note the difference in feelings and emotions: the realized feel, but they do not emote. Emotional intoxication occurs only when an ego-state takes itself to be real and then thinks that it is being hurt or threatened, as in the illustration offered earlier when it was shown that "The Husband" ego-state can become emotionally-intoxicated and reactionary if its existence seems to be threatened by "The Wife's" report that she is leaving.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One's true feelings will always be contrary to what is expected by society, so the authentic will be hidden so often that any chance to be in touch with that Reality is almost always squashed in every culture around the globe. (Is it any wonder, therefore, that so few will ever realize, that is - per Maharaj - be "freed of the ignorance" taught in all cultures?)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since "tatemae" is what is expected by society and what is typically required to "maintain one's position and circumstances," then "tatemae" will never match "honne".&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The conflict between "honne" and one's "social obligations" (which are taught via programming, conditioning, etc.) has been one of the main topics of Japanese drama throughout the ages. Often, the protagonist must choose between carrying out his obligations to his family or to his lord (or, now, to his boss or employer) on one hand and pursuing a forbidden love affair on the other hand.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the end, death would be the only way out of the dilemma. Is that not the case whenever and wherever duality is the rule rather than exception? Is that not the case when a belief in duality blocks the understanding of Real Love which is based in the awareness that "Love is knowing that I am everything"?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, the concepts of "honne" and "tatemae" are associated with the concept of "Nihonjinron" (referring to "ideas and theories about the Japanese"). The point of view at the core of "Nihonjinron" is that the culture believes itself to be - as referenced earlier - "homogenous."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(In fact, the desire to "be homogeneous" is at the very core of the agendas being promoted by the Far-Right, the Alt-Right, the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists and the "Make Our Country Great Again" activists&nbsp; in the U.S. and in many nations in Western Europe and other nations around the globe. The irony is that their desire for a "non-dual nation" is totally rooted in . . . duality.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As always, duality-based beliefs will foster the subsequent belief that one's culture is totally different from all other people in all other cultures. Because ego-states are always upgraded, then the notion of "better than" always follows closely on the heels of the belief in "different from." Again, any chance at understanding the unicity is squashed as a result of such programming, conditioning, etc..&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few Japanese researchers and writers are now offering a differing view for the first time, suggesting that such xenophobic, nationalistic visions are just an illusion. What a call to realize, yes? As the case with realized teachers throughout history, those researchers and writers are trying to deconstruct the illusion of "different from" and "better than."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, therefore, it can be seen that the Eastern example discussed above is not about the Japanese at all but is about allowing that microcosm to illustrate the widespread duality in the macrocosm.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thus, to be free of belief in "dualities" and "separation" and "different from" and "better than," one must be free of the effects of programming, conditioning, etc; and to be free of the effects of those, seekers must question everything that they have ever been told or taught.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, there is nothing to teach, nothing to learn, and no one to teach or to learn anything. There is, however, much to be un-taught and un-learned. How much? <i><b>All</b></i> of it, until there is not one single belief or idea or concept remaining.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then only can the truth be known, the truth which can be understood completely but that cannot be stated. As the indigenous peoples in the U.S. have long affirmed - along with their ancestors in the East: "Truth is nothing more than the space between exhalation and inhalation."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, there can be no vacuum. When all is questioned and completely rejected, then truth will rush in to fill what would otherwise be an empty space. Then, the fullness can manifest as any previous sense of emptiness ends.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2650I2wI_pE/WeNnekWzUVI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/lcPI3A3CKWgMCV9hZ6TldEv5YmT6FOW7QCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2650I2wI_pE/WeNnekWzUVI/AAAAAAAAC2Q/lcPI3A3CKWgMCV9hZ6TldEv5YmT6FOW7QCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_15.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-1775068392797663348Sat, 14 Oct 2017 13:28:00 +00002017-10-14T09:28:31.518-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Ten<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;xx[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some answers have been already been offered in the ebook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-only-three-hours-of-manifestation-remain.php"><b>WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson) </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, answer #9 to the question "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?" is this:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>The Relative Existence Will Never Be Stable, But That Which You Have Always Been Is Permanent&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Maharaj knew that the taking of mahasamadhi was approaching, his sharings became pithy, terse, concise and succinct. Too, if it became clear that here only three hours of manifestation remained for sharing, then only the most central and most essential non-duality pointers would be offered in a condensed version, compressed into what could be delivered in that limited period. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So far, the following pointers have been offered for consideration:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. Find the simplest version of these teachings. Do not complicate the process.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. Filter your "ultimate objective" by sifting out all unnatural aims and all supernatural ambitions, allowing only that which leads to the ability to abide naturally and spontaneously and unaffectedly and effortlessly to pass through the Nisargan sieve of realization which can strain out anything and everything that is not normal and ordinary and instinctive and innate. Then see how simple the relative existence can become via Realization and natural abidance.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">3. End all efforts to replace former "bad" labels and roles with "new and improved and upgraded and noble labels and roles." Then, being label-free and identity-free, the remainder of the abidance can happen naturally, simply, sanely, and rationally. Meaning?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">4. Do not reject one set of labels and roles and false identities for another set of the same. (Yes, that is Advaita Vedantin heresy. So be it.) Labels are the cancer on the relative existence. If you have a cancer-ridden lung and the doctor recommends a transplant using a lung that is also infected with cancer cells, would you think that sane?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why reject labels and roles to only replace them with other labels or roles?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why go through all the hassle and debate and philosophical work of finding out if you are . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">an infinite self, An Infinite Self, the essence, the Absolute Reality, Divinity, Atman, Consciousness, Awareness, a Supreme Self, The Most Superior Self, The One Who Is at One with God, or - in some cases - even God . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">if in the end you are to see the Nothingness . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">if you are, in fact, to understand that "wisdom is knowing that you are nothing?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The point is offered here often that everything in the relative is much ado about nothing. So is "the path" and "the journey" and "Realization" as well if they lead to anything other than a means by which the relative existence can unfold in a sane and logical and natural manner after following the "path" to its end, after completing the "journey," after realizing. (More Advaitin heresy, right? But that is another of the "final" points which you are invited to take away from all of the talks and writings.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">5. Next, understand that the relative existence will never be stable but that . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">a. not only can you be stable&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">but also that . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">b. that which you have always been is permanent. How?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is energy / matter, and energy / matter has always been. It cannot be created, nor can it be destroyed. Consciousness is merely one of many forms of energy. It can manifest within a space and it can unmanifest. Or it might never manifest within a space. Either way, it is just a part of the vastness of the energy / matter contained within this universe (and in all other universes as well).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider as an example one of the near-infinite number of dualistic aspects of the relative existence - such as "healthiness" or "an absence of healthiness" - and see that the relative will always be marked by duality:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This speck, called "floyd" by some, was enjoying his health which allowed him to operate a European tour company, to climb the hills of Tuscany, to hike to the peaks of several Swiss Alps, and to walk the streets of all of the major cities - and many of the smaller villages - of The Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, the U.K. and Italy.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then certain symptoms appeared which indicated that an unhealthy condition had manifested. The doctor's word: "cancer." Time was spent in treatment and healing, at which point it was determined that the message which the inner resource had been sending for years should finally be acknowledged.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result came retirement from "secure" employment in order to share these teachings / unteachings and to write about the non-duality understanding that had come. Within ten years, dozens of books had been written - and scores of rejection slips had been received - with only three having been published in that first decade of writing.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As always, the writings happened in the early morning hours, and the state of health which had returned allowed many hours each day to be enjoyed on the lake, allowed for motorcycle rides through forested areas, and allowed long periods of time to be passed in the woods in many states throughout the U.S.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then came the day at the end of October in 2005 when a deer ran in front of the motorcycle that was clipping along at 70 m.p.h. (or over 112 k.p.h.) It was noted earlier that more details would be provided.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The crash resulted in a concussion; in seventeen bones being broken (including both the fibula and tibia which were broken in half); in both shoulders being dislocated; and in the hips being dislocated. It took nearly a year for whatever healing was going to happen, but there would never be "full recovery." In spite of that, the next five years of the relative existence passed with considerable enjoyment, traveling again throughout Europe but this time for pleasure only, accompanied by a friend from college with whom I had been reunited.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then in March of 2010, the health declined again. The diagnosis was that neither the heart nor the lungs were functioning in a normal fashion. As is the case with all things relative, there were "good" days and "bad" days until October of 2011 when the crash came. The diagnosis: there was a 95% blockage of the LAD; there was internal hemorrhaging which dropped the red blood cell count from 15 to 7;&nbsp;</div><br />angioplasty opened some arteries and the placement of a stent addressed the major blockage; but then the use of blood thinners aggravated the internal hemorrhaging, resulting in a hemoglobin count of 4.7 by the time that readmission to the hospital was required; and there was also, as a result of anemia, the deterioration of a valve that has been generating a murmur since the age of fifteen.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, the state of the stent and the blood either clotting or not clotting much unfold as it will since thinners cannot be used. So it is.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The point is, if you review what happened in terms of that one aspect of the relative existence alone - namely, the fluctuations that happened in terms of "healthiness" and "an absence of healthiness" - it should be clear that nothing in the relative will be stable. All is in flux. The only constant is change. Moreover, the similar relative events will cycle as well. Doubt that? Consider the global chaos that began in 2008 when banks and financial institutions began crashing. Then consider what Maharaj shared in this exchange nearly four decades ago:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questioner: "I may not want to change. My life is good enough as it is."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "You say so because you have not seen how painful is the life you live. You are like a child sleeping with a lollypop in its mouth. You may feel happy for a moment by being totally self-centered, but it is enough to have a good look at human faces to perceive the universality of suffering. Even your own happiness is so vulnerable and short-lived, at the mercy of a bank-crash, or a stomach ulcer. It is just a moment of respite, a mere gap between two sorrows. Real happiness is not vulnerable, because it does not depend on circumstances."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But as far as you are concerned, all that can happen in terms of instability is that you can be blocked (via programming, conditioning, domestication, and acculturation) from knowing the fact that you are that which can only be stable and that can never be unstable; however, in more cases than not among the non-realized masses, persons reach a point where their relative existence seems as if it is taking place on a runaway train, and often it seems that the result is one train wreck after another.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The remedy offered here? Reach the destination at the end of the "path" and be done with it all. Reaching the end of the "path" is not about staying "there." The invitation is to leave the train and to abide naturally and calmly, enjoying whatever the relative might offer that you can enjoy. For those who have seemingly completed the "journey" and now believe that they are "there" is evidence of either distortion, delusion, or dissociation. While manifested, You are "here." Enjoy here. Enjoy now. It is the only time and place during which you will be able to enjoy.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj said: "Like a traveller nearing his destination and collecting his luggage, he leaves the train without regret."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The invitation is to leave the speeding, unstable train on which most are presently riding. Then, the remainder of the manifestation can unfold as if you are standing on a hill next to the railroad track. You will merely watch the trains race by, and you observe that sometimes a train passes by safely and that sometimes it crashes and burns. Either way, you are no longer aboard. As both the witness and as Pure Witnessing, You are stable as all that is variable and shifting and unstable happens as if you are viewing it all from a platform where Reality has been overlaid on the relative. Effort and travel and "journeying" are no longer required.&nbsp;</div><br />Maharaj: "The jnani is already dead to name and shape. How can their loss affect him? The man in the train travels from place to place, but the man off the train goes nowhere, for he is not bound for a destination. He has nowhere to go, nothing to do, nothing to become."<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Understand all of the above and then you will know that, though the relative existence will never be stable, that which you have always been is permanent. The part most miss? Before manifestation, there is no knowing, no "one" to know, non "one" to enjoy or hate anything.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The awareness is not aware of itself unless it manifests as consciousness and only then if the consciousness leads to an awareness of awareness. Post-manifestation, there will be no conscious-of-ness and there will be no aware-of-ness (just as the case was prior to manifestation).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So why realize? So that you can observe the relative instability for now from an unaffected and totally stable position of neutrality.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rtbtjy64BWU/WeIPqd3FwAI/AAAAAAAAC18/ZQhBuO5UGccccLBycQEZcVUBXOVLSq1CACLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rtbtjy64BWU/WeIPqd3FwAI/AAAAAAAAC18/ZQhBuO5UGccccLBycQEZcVUBXOVLSq1CACLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_14.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-3992769219689934517Fri, 13 Oct 2017 13:27:00 +00002017-10-13T09:27:37.630-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Nine<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some answers have been already been offered in the ebook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-only-three-hours-of-manifestation-remain.php"><b>WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson) </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today's post will offer answer #8 to the question, "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?" Answer #8: "This deal is about understanding what you are <i><b>not</b></i>."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Understand What You Are Not&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[<i>When Maharaj was using a religious / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine, and when he was using a spirituality / non-dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine, he followed the trend at the time in the Far East and recommended that seekers engage in "SELF-Enquiry," turning their focus from things relative and phenomenal and focusing only on things spiritual and Noumenal.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>When he came to understand that the Ultimate Sickness is neither a "too-little-dogma illness" nor a "spiritual malady" and when he came to see that the Sickness is totally centered in the mind, then he began offering a psychology / non-dual compounded version of the Medicine and began recommending that seekers engage in a "self-enquiry" (that is, in a "false-self enquiry") and find out what they are not.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>In other words, he recommended that seekers&nbsp; shift beyond the playing of the "good roles" at the third step on the "path" - namely, "The Super Religious One," "The Spiritual Giant," and "The Super Seeker" - and move to the next step where one is merely <b>being</b> without any beliefs about "being this" or "being that."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>In the Far East, that next step has long been called "The Child Ignorance Stage." Here, it is referred to as "The Child No-Knowing State."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>While Maharaj continued to offer pointers from all seven steps on "the path," he made this clear to those who could not - for one reason or another - complete all of those steps: "It is enough to know who you are not."</i>]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier, this consideration was offered:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If the end of the search for labeling comes with the understanding that you are nothing, what is to seek? The only thing to seek is that understanding. Then, being label-free and identity free, the remainder of the abidance can happen naturally, simply, sanely, and rationally . . . without the burden of the egotism and conceit that accompany the assumption of "noble" identities.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With nothing more to do, the illusion of the "do-er" can end and what then begins is the mere beingness - marked not by anything unnatural and not by anything thought to be supernatural but only by that which is nisargan / natural. Most will never seek the answer to the question "Who Am I, Really?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the few who do seek, few will ever find the answer . . . for a host of reasons. Primary among those reasons is the fact that they are asking the wrong question to begin with: There is no "WHO" and there is no "WHO-ness." The legitimate question to ask is, "WHAT Am I, Really?" The answer, mentioned earlier, is a "composite unity of elements, air, and -conscious-energy."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course that has to do with the relative. What of those seekers that might complete the seven steps to that allows the identification to shift from the false "I" to the Absolute? I have been here for the coming together of all universes, and so have You. If you choose to identify with the Absolute in this particular universe - that field of energy / Awareness from which all specks of consciousness manifest - with what can you identify prior to the field manifesting? You Were even prior to that. And what was prior to that? The Void, then some other universe, then some other Void, then some other universe, ad infinitum.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because all is energy, matter, energy / matter, and since neither of those can be created nor destroyed, they have always been, even prior to the formation of this universe. Where were you prior? What were you prior? The answer: Merely matter / energy that has been cycling eternally. So you were, possibly; then you were not; then you were possibly; then you were not, maybe, <i>ad infinitum</i>, as one temporary speck of Am-ness manifested (or not) during an interim that temporarily intervened upon the THAT-ness.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because Reality is a no concept, no-identity, non-dual Reality, then what is with all of this identity-seeking? [That will be a far-too-radical pointer for most seekers, wanting as they do to define and re-define their self-ness (or supposed "Self-ness." So it is.] To find That which one is, one must find that which "one" has always been. And to find That which "one" has always been, You must first find all that you are not because it is all that you are not which blocks the seeing of that which has always been.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, because all of those not-you's are the present source of all misery and suffering, there is only one logical conclusion that can be drawn: if you would be free of misery and suffering, then you must know those not-you's and end once and for all their influence over your thoughts and words and deeds. To be influenced and driven and controlled by the not-you's would be no different from being influenced and driven and controlled by a mirage in the road ahead while driving through the desert. Consider this illustration:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As mentioned here on occasion, 59% of all women murdered annually in the U.S. are killed by one claiming at some point to have "loved" them: "The Lover" or "The Boyfriend" or "The Husband" or "The Common Law Husband," etc. When are those women killed 59% of the time? When they try to leave their "Lover" or "Boyfriend" or "Husband" or "Common Law Husband," etc. (By the way, the women are "catching up" nowadays: 41% of all males killed in the U.S. are killed by a woman during a breakup.) Why do such murders happen?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because in the example above, the male involved really believes that the not-him is Him, and all not-him's (and not-you's) require a codependent counterpart, a person willing to play the other part in any dualistic pairing. "The Husband" can only "exist" (in his "mind") if that role has one willing to play "The Wife." If "The Wife" determines that she is no longer willing to play the role that reinforces the illusion of "Husband-ness" in the "mind" of the male involved with her, then all "Husband" role-playing will end. He can no longer be a "Husband"; he can only be an "Ex-Husband," in his "mind."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Identified with that role, the one playing "The Husband" will believe that he is actually being attacked and will believe that he is about to be destroyed. In the warped game of role-assumption, insanity can reach such a level of severity that one mirage can come to believe that it can be assailed and annihilated by another mirage. Talk about the insanity of duality and the insanity of believing in dualistic concepts and ideas and identities.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So consider: if the one playing "The Husband" in that example were to come to understand that He is not a "Husband," then he would not feel threatened and would not feel driven to lash out in defense of a culturally-assigned and culturally-encouraged mirage. If none of the people in relationships in the U.S. ever Realized Fully but were at least to understand what they are not, then 59% of all women killed annually would not be killed, and 41% of all men killed annually would not be killed. And none of those people would have to understand anything about Realization for that to happen.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider also the impact on the relative existence if only persons were at least to understand what they are not, even if they never find the answer to "Who - or What - Am I, Really?" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tgEmCvT15F4/WeC8IBB2hCI/AAAAAAAAC1s/u779MuXGaMMAT7TvIjG6AJbQjty37eLswCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tgEmCvT15F4/WeC8IBB2hCI/AAAAAAAAC1s/u779MuXGaMMAT7TvIjG6AJbQjty37eLswCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_13.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-4623699473467776947Thu, 12 Oct 2017 13:46:00 +00002017-10-12T09:46:07.970-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Eight<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some answers have been already been offered in the ebook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-only-three-hours-of-manifestation-remain.php"><b>WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson) </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today we'll look at answer #7 to the question "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?": "This deal is about sharing <i>a simple treatment plan</i> for a global Sickness which has become quite complex in its nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>It Is All Very Simple&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No other teacher gave us such insight - via the transcripts of his final talks - than Maharaj provided by allowing the reader "to sit beside him" in the loft and to see how a realized teacher "handles" mahasamadhi. (It turns out that it is the exact, same way that the realized teacher "handles" all in the relative existence.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj modeled the way that the relative existence can happen with dignity, even though a body is racked with pain. No other teacher displayed so precisely and intimately and transparently&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(a) by way of the content of his final talks and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(b) via his demeanor during the final days of the manifestation,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">the calm and peaceful way that the relative existence can happen and the calm and peaceful way that the end of the relative existence can happen. And his sharings showed the way that a guru that knows his final talks are being offered will focus his message on the basic and bare essentials.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his case, he made clear that there is so much more to this "journey" than "the spiritual part." (Here, it is acknowledged that the religious and / or spiritual step must be completed but that the religious and / or spiritual step is the third of seven steps on the entire "path" and that the third step must be transitioned if the "journey" is to continue to completion and full realization which, per Maharaj, means nothing more than "being free of all learned ignorance"). </div><br />So what topics did Maharaj deal with in his final talks? <br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. The source of all relative problems.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. The maya.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">3. The nature of consciousness prior to manifestation (that is, the nature of Awareness).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">4. The falsehood of all things thought to be personal.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;5. How the relative can and should continue post-Realization, but with Reality having been overlaid upon it.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;6. The uselessness of knowledge (a.k.a., learned ignorance).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">7. Stabilizing in reality and Reality and truth and Truth.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">8. The sickness (that is, the Ultimate Sickness) and its treatment (which means addressing the actual problem which is the mind, not "the spirit").</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;9. Transcending body, mind, personality and, eventually, the consciousness itself, paving the way for only the impersonal consciousness to continue for the remainder of its manifestation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;10. Why realization cannot happen unless one transitions beyond all fear and / or anger about having one's so-called "knowledge" devalued and debunked.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">11. How the end of the manifestation of the conscious-energy is the beginning of freedom from bondage.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">12. The nothingness.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">13. The freedom that comes by allowing all knowledge to go into liquidation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">14. Being unconcerned.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">15. Abiding with dignity and taking mahasamadhi with dignity.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If all that is to be understood about those fifteen topics were understood, it would be enough. Here, there is no presumption that Maharaj's final talks could be "improved upon" . . . or need to be. Any final talks here would be quite similar.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One topic that would be included in any final talks here was introduced earlier, namely, the invitation to see - as Maharaj taught - how very simple these teachings really are (or should be, if the teacher knows how to present them in a forthright and simple and easy-to-grasp manner.) The invitation is also to see how simple (that is, "natural") the relative existence becomes with the understanding of these teachings (or, actually, these "unteachings").&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj said to one of his visitors in the loft: "Realisation is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one’s self as unreal is ignorance . . . the cause of sorrow. To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes . . . it really is "all very simple."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "Truth is simple and open to all. Why do you complicate? Truth is loving and lovable. It includes all, accepts all, purifies all. It is untruth that is difficult and a source of trouble. It always wants, expects, demands. Being false, it is empty, always in search of confirmation and reassurance. It is afraid of and avoids enquiry. It identifies itself with any support, however weak and momentary. Whatever it gets, it loses and asks for more. Therefore put no faith in the conscious. Nothing you can see, feel, or think is so. Even 'sin' and 'virtue' [and] 'merit' and 'demerit' are not what they appear. Usually 'the bad' and 'the good' are a matter of convention and custom and are shunned or welcomed, according to how the words are used."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, consider the implications of this exchange:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questioner: "What distinguishes your world from mine?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "My world has no characteristics by which it can be identified. You can say nothing about it. I am my world. My world is myself. It is complete and perfect. Every impression is erased, every experience - rejected. I need nothing, not even myself, for myself I cannot lose."&nbsp;</div>Questioner: "Not even God?"&nbsp;<div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "All these ideas and distinctions exist in your world; in mine there is nothing of the kind. My world is single and very simple."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See, it really is all so very simple: if you transition your belief in all identification, you will be free of the debilitating influence of body and mind and personality, and it is always either body and / or mind and / or personality that "wants, expects, demands"; that is "empty, always in search of confirmation and reassurance"; that is "afraid of and avoids enquiry"; that "identifies itself with any support, however weak and momentary"; and that always "asks for more."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you are not the body or mind or personality - which are "the cause of sorrow" - then what are you? That, too, is so very simple: you are a composite unity - which is a triad consisting of elements, air, and energy. The body is a plant food, elemental body that is temporarily circulating air and that is temporarily a body-cum-consciousness - that is, a body temporarily housing conscious-energy. At the time that the consciousness unmanifests, the elements will return to the universal pool of elements; the air will merge with the universal pool of air; and the conscious-energy will be released into that universal pool of energy from whence it manifested.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is no beginning, middle, end, or afterlife; thus, there is no eternal reward or punishment. (Talk about a freeing fact!) There is no time and there is no truth to the concept of timelines. There is nothing that is linear - there is only that which cycles. It is all very simple.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And if the composite unity is understood, the relative existence becomes simple too, devoid of "the causes of suffering," namely:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">body identification, the fiction-filled mind, and the agenda-driven personalities that cast the masses into a personality trance which strips them of all ability to choose, which strips them of all ability to cast aside their learned ignorance, and which strips them of all ability to transition beyond their family-and-culture-induced-insanity.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Family-and-culture-induced-insanity? Yes. Emphatically, yes. During the last forty-two years of working with parents, countless numbers have been heard to complain about their teenage children who they claim are doing things that seem "silly or destructive or insane." And teens can exhibit one or more of those. But why? Because it takes approximately 13-15 years of dealing with parents who are driven by their personality trances and by their learned ignorance and by their insanity for their children to also be forced into a trance;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">to also be left unawake and unaware and unconscious, just like their parents; to also be trapped in learned ignorance, just like their parents; and to also be strapped with the burden of personality defects and insanity, just like their parents. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The source of that which parents complain about in terms of their teen children would also be very simple to see - if parents could but see themselves; that is, if they could see their own false, unawake, unaware, unconscious, ignorant, insane selves. Once the simple understanding of the composite unity is understood, then there is neither a body nor a mind nor assumed personalities that can complicate the relative existence.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is all so simple after it is understood that the elements cannot be upset, understood that the air cannot be upset, and understood that energy cannot be upset. No part of that which you temporarily are can be upset. The only thing that can be upset is the imaginary not-you or the imaginary not-you's. Only the not-you's can complicate what would be an otherwise simple relative existence; only the not-you's can "always want, expect, and demand"; only the not-you's can feel "empty, always in search of confirmation and reassurance"; only the not-you's can be "afraid of and avoid enquiry"; only the not-you's can "identify with any support, however weak and momentary"; and only the not-you's can always "ask for more."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It all really is so very simple to understand, once it has been explained in simple, everyday terms, yes?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, if the end of the search for labeling comes with the understanding that you are nothing, what is to seek? The only thing to seek is that understanding.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Do not take that as a Neo-Advaita pointer. There is more involved than "You are what you seek. You're done, so go away"; however, in some respects, it is not much more involved than that, in the end.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, being label-free and identity free, the remainder of the abidance can happen naturally, simply, sanely, and rationally (which is the way that every living thing on this planet abides, except for programmed and conditioned and domesticated and acculturated humans).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That means, the remainder of the manifestation can happen without the burden of having to "do" in order to sustain false identities. That also means, the remainder of the manifestation can happen without the burden of the egotism and conceit that accompany the assumption of "noble" identities that actually foster arrogance (such as, "The Supreme Self," "The Most Superior Self," "The One at One with God," or - in some cases - just "God").&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">With nothing more to do, the illusion of the "do-er" can end and what then begins is the mere beingness - marked not by anything unnatural and not by anything thought to be supernatural but only by that which is nisargan / natural.&nbsp;</div><br />See? Simple, yes?<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8QyzN_kOA-k/Wd9wJ15QuTI/AAAAAAAAC1c/HgE7onSpXa0I-uhrb7q_umD4pN-V8qahwCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8QyzN_kOA-k/Wd9wJ15QuTI/AAAAAAAAC1c/HgE7onSpXa0I-uhrb7q_umD4pN-V8qahwCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button: </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_12.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-3902408739614471366Wed, 11 Oct 2017 12:57:00 +00002017-10-11T09:01:28.709-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Seven<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the reply to the question, "So what else is this deal all about?" some additional answers have been offered in the ebook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-only-three-hours-of-manifestation-remain.php"><b>WHEN ONLY THREE HOURS OF MANIFESTATION REMAIN (The "Final" Talks Of Floyd Henderson) </b></a><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P01cC-SjXWk/Wd4OjB6garI/AAAAAAAAC1M/jogl2dlKTqAqNWB7wSuO6uRn8Wx5SFF4wCLcBGAs/s1600/three%2Bhours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P01cC-SjXWk/Wd4OjB6garI/AAAAAAAAC1M/jogl2dlKTqAqNWB7wSuO6uRn8Wx5SFF4wCLcBGAs/s400/three%2Bhours.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and will be included in this current series because they also answer the question being addressed.<b><br /></b>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before moving to answer #7 in the discussion regarding "what this deal is really all about," there is a "back story" behind that book from which excerpts will be shared. There were some events which inspired the sharing of the pointers in that book - discussed in some detail, later - but for now, the way that book came into being will be shared:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In October of 2011, there was a problem with this plant food body that involved a combination of (1) a 95% blockage in the left anterior descending artery and (2) internal hemorrhaging that had lowered the hemoglobin rate from its preferred range of 12-16 for a male to a rate near 7.0.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The doctors completed two exploratory surgeries seeking (unsuccessfully) the origin of the bleeding, along with the transfusion of many units of plasma, along with angioplasty, and along with the placement of a stent in the LAD. Then, claiming that "bleeding often stop on its own" (and my insurance having reached its maximum coverage for this event), they sent me home.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It only took four days of using the blood thinners which they ignorantly prescribed out of habit to aggravate the undiscovered wound where the internal hemorrhaging had originated and where it continued to bleed in order to send this plant food body staggering back into the office of the cardiologist in an even-worse condition than before.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A speedy processing of a blood sample revealed that the red blood cell rate had dropped from 7.0 to 4.7 as a result of the increased flow of blood which the blood thinners caused.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Two nurses explained that it was impossible that I had walked into their office with a 4.7 red blood cell rate, especially after having surgeries and after the placement of a stent that could include complications triggered by the need to stop the use of blood thinners. The reply: "Don't know what to tell you, ladies, except that my best recollection is that I did walk in here on my own.")&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The doctor called for a wheelchair and gave the nurses instructions to bypass the admissions office of the adjacent hospital and to take me directly to ICU and to have a nurse begin an IV and administer what would become a total of seven more units of blood.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a discussion with my daughter and friends who had come to check on the body's condition, the doctor's prognosis that night was not positive. It was learned later that the doctor was seemingly very concerned and was also mystified when he was told by my one of my friends that he could relax in the fact that "if floyd makes it, that will be okay with him, and if he does not make it, that will be okay with him as well."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, the doctor was taken aback, but he asserted that his intentions did not parallel that sentiment. The next two days were described by those tending to this plant food body to be "touch-and-go," especially after the doctors diagnosed an additional complication as a result of anemia, namely, damage to the left ventricular valve that has already been generating a heart murmur since the age of fifteen.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some five so-called "critical" weeks after completion of the procedures on the heart and on internal organs, the doctors were still nervously monitoring the state of the stent and watching to see whether or not blood clots would form in the absence of blood thinners and baby aspirins which could not be used. Meanwhile, the condition of the body as it was being witnessed in "my way" was still being viewed with the attitude that "whatever unfolds in whatever way it unfolds is merely how it's going to unfold." But what do those hospitalizations have to do with this book being written?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During that stay, a call came from a man who engaged is certain pleasantries and some inquiries about the condition of the body and the prognosis for what he termed "my survival"; however, it soon became clear that there was more that he wanted to discuss (though he was being sheepish about revealing the actual motive behind his call).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recognizing that there was some embarrassment or awkwardness around what he wanted, it was suggested that he say what he wanted to say. He continued to hesitate as he tried to find a way to ask delicately and tactfully what he felt was going to be clumsy at best and possibly insensitive or unfeeling or rude at the worst. Finally, with additional encouragement, he said it:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I was wondering if there might be something that you would be willing to say to those who have been following your blog or reading your books or coming to you for satsang or retreats over the years. I don't want you to think I want to profit from the sale of a video or tape recording or book of transcripts of what you might be willing to share, but it seems that maybe there might be some . . . "&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As his paused, it seemed as if it might not end his statement. Then he was asked: "You mean, maybe there might be some 'last words' or some remaining elements of the teachings that have not yet been shared which you could compile in a book and publish after I take mahasamadhi?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That question was followed by boisterous laughter (with which he did not join). Then, “You prompted a recollection of an old cartoon image of vultures circling above a fellow who was crawling across a desert with only minutes to live.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His reply was something to this effect: "It's just that - considering all of the talks and writings that have provided so many in-depth explanations and discussions - maybe there might be a call to give 'the short version' . . . kind of a 'one-two punch' to all relative falsehoods, and a succinct pointing to the Real."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“In other words,” he continued, “what would you say if you knew for a fact that only three hours of the manifestation remained? I mean, what would you say if you knew you were offering your final talks? For those of us that you've invited to continue sharing the non-duality message but who cannot possibly offer the detailed explanations you do, what can we say that will get to the heart of things in a way that we can provide after you're gone?”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reply: "So after all of the conversations we're shared about non-duality, the best you can come up with right now is the notion that it has been 'I' - rather than the consciousness - that has been speaking or writing or sharing? And you think that you need to be able to tell any seekers who might come to you something that 'I' said that they need to hear, rather than you sharing your own 'experience' and understanding?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The fact is, if only three hours of the manifestation remained, the case here would be the same as the case was with Maharaj at the end of the manifestation of that speck: he entered into the silence, not into more talking."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He: "What I'm asking for is some sort of condensation. You tell 'this' to a seeker at one point on the 'path,' but you tell 'that' to a different seeker at a different point on the 'path.' All I'm asking for is what you would tell those who have taken all seven steps on the 'path' but who still need to hear something more in order to get the total message."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reply: "Maharaj shared at the end many pointers that differed from what he had told seekers all along the way as he shifted from emphasizing one yoga after another." Silence. Then, "Arrangements have been made with a company in Houston to cremate this body after the manifestation ends. If I walk out of this hospital instead of being transported by an employee of that company, then I'll take your request under advisement."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The result of that exchange is this book. The word "final" is in quote marks because the discussions herein might not be the actual final talks at all; however, if it were determined that any such final talks should happen at this point, the content of this book would be the subject matter of those talks.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, there you have it. The points offered in this book also help answer the question, "What is this non-dual deal really all about anyway?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Tomorrow the discussion will continue with answer #7 to the question, "What is this non-duality deal all about anyway?" Answer number 7: "This deal is about sharing a simple treatment plan for a far-from-simple global Sickness which has become quite complex in its nature."&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_C_JkwHYluc/Wd4OLEd6PeI/AAAAAAAAC1I/2iW-XBCP9rA3q6Vg7tr3Wv-IZ3dIoYfFgCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_C_JkwHYluc/Wd4OLEd6PeI/AAAAAAAAC1I/2iW-XBCP9rA3q6Vg7tr3Wv-IZ3dIoYfFgCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_11.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-5946010083564635827Tue, 10 Oct 2017 12:53:00 +00002017-10-10T08:53:58.702-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Six<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"So what else is this deal all about?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the pointer from 6 October 2017 and from yesterday:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>6. Being able to reduce arrogance and egotism and eliminating the false belief in "different-from-ment" and "better-than-ment" and then understanding that one is neither "special" nor "Special" nor "different" nor "better" and that what is called "a human" or "person" is actually nothing more than a "composite unity."&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yesterday a description was offered of what a relative existence is like when abiding blindly as the body-mind-personality triad. Conversely, there is abidance as it unfolds after the understanding of the triad of the composite unity.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If an understanding of the triad of elements-air-conscious energy replaces identification with the body-mind-personality, then certain shifts begin to happen. Yet even that is not the end of the "path," so fixation in an unwavering state of happiness or bliss or contentment cannot happen.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note, too, that even when the end of the "path" is reached, Reality is merely overlaid on the relative. The relative does not end, so the "stuff" of the Am-ness will still happen.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the ebook <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/when-reality-is-overlaid-on-the-relative.php">When Reality Is Overlaid On the Relative,</a> it is made clear that "things relative" must still be dealt with for the remainder of the manifestation. It is simply that they are "dealt with" (that is, witnessed as they happen) in a quite different manner, specifically:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">without attachment and without any "one" thinking she / he is dealing with things; with clear witnessing; with an intuitive sixth sense; and with an inner guru or inner resource guiding the way through what appears to be certain remaining mazes.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Mazes" such as? Such as continuing biorhythmic cycles that impact the way the plant food body feels at any given moment through a monthly cycle; such as the effects of under-functioning organs as a result of not following the proper food plan for one's body type (there being three different types that each require different types of food);&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">such as situations where feelings are automatically triggered, feelings that the "realized" watch as they rise and fall. (The "non-realized," by contrast, allow feeling to disintegrate into emoting as ego-states become driven by emotions and emotional intoxication and inspire actions that are, relatively speaking, harmful to "self" or "others").&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[Note: When an Advaitin asks, "Who cares?" the question more specifically is asking, "<b><i>WHO</i></b> - what ego-state, what false personality, what assumed identity - cares about some perceived slight or insult or "attack" that is not really an attack at all? "<b><i>WHO</i></b> - what ego-state, what false personality, what assumed identity - feels hurt or feels interfered with or feels in danger?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The question is asked in order to lead the listener to the understanding that there is no<b><i> one</i></b> that is actually being attacked and that it is only some illusion, some false self, which is feeling vulnerable or threatened and therefore afraid or angry. The intent is to allow one to see the lie / the misperception and to be free thereafter of the unfounded fear which all ego-states engender.]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course there might be instances where a sense of <i><b>WHONESS</b></i> can return for a spell and can form for a time an elements-air-consciousness-<i><b>WHONESS</b></i> quartet. This was shared recently:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you see that what is happening is something more than the effects of biorhythms or is more than biochemical in its nature, then you might sit in the quiet and ask,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"<i><b>WHO</b></i> is feeling whatever is being felt? <b><i>WHO</i></b> is involved in this?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When <b><i>WHO's</i></b> rear their heads, they do so by kicking in the front door and screaming as they charge inside but by sneaking in thorough the back door very quietly.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The understanding of the composite unity is a mid-"path" understanding. There can be no natural vacuums in the physical realm, meaning that if a fist is stuck into the air, it will displace the air, but if the fist is lowered, air will rush back into that space to fill what would otherwise be a void.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, if a seeker is invited to set aside identification with the body and the mind and personality, the question that is often asked is, "If I am not those three, surely I must be something. What can I say I am at this point?" The seeker is trying to "fill the void."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the seeker at that point still has four steps to go along the seven-step "journey" to Realization, so it will not be time for the seeker to be offered 5th- and 6th- and 7th-step pointers when only the 3rd step is being transitioned.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since vacuums are not natural, however, then the understanding of the composite unity can be used to fill what seems to seekers to be a vacuum when they give up certain identities but are not yet ready to see what the truly authentic is, what Awareness is, and what the Void is.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Therefore, though the understanding of the composite unity might be a mid-"path" tool, it is also an effective tool for seekers far along the "path," for there can be instances when <i><b>WHONESS</b></i> tries to join the triad of unity and form a quartet.&nbsp;</div><br />When that happens, the <i><b>WHONESS</b></i> will want the triad to accept the quartet as real and will want the other parts to join it in singing a song, and the song will not be "<i>A Song of MySelf</i>." It will be "A Song of Something Supposedly 'Personal'."<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It will be a song of restlessness and touchiness and irritation and, eventually, even anger. Of the three parts of the composite unity, only the blocked conscious-energy (blocked from seeing clearly because of the miasma of <i><b>WHONESS</b></i>) can sing along with the <i><b>WHO</b></i> that has emerged.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The song will be totally out of harmony, however, because the elements and air parts of the composite unity cannot sing such a song ... or any song. If you are hearing a disconcerting sound within, it may well be the <i><b>WHONESS</b></i> that has crept back in for a spell, and if that happens, it will produce a sense of disharmony.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hate the <b><i>WHO</i></b>? No, it is just doing what <b><i>WHO's</i></b> do. And they (those ego-states) are so shrewd at what they do. Sometimes they can appear as a past <b><i>WHO</i></b> that is being mourned (such as "The Spouse" who no longer exists because the one who had played the co-dependent counterpart for a time quit playing and walked off the stage where the drama was being played out).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes, the <b><i>WHO</i></b> is an ego-state that has never appeared but is being desired and longed for, such as "The One Who Would Be A Spouse But Has Not Yet Played That Role" or "The One Ready To Play A New Role With Another Not Able or Willing To Play."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recall, pain is of the body, but misery and suffering are of "the mind" . . . that place where the belief in personas and would-be personas are stored Not only (1) the desire for a persona that was but that now is not but also (2) the longing for a persona that has not yet been but is desired can both generate restlessness and touchiness and irritation and even anger.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If one re-considers the lies of the body-mind-personality triad and sees them for the distortions that they are, and if one returns to the facts surrounding the composite unity, then one might be propelled along the "path";&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">or, one that has made the "journey" might be returned to that place where the instability of the blocked consciousness is left behind and where freedom and peace and bliss then fill once again that vacuum that results from now-absent-blockages.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To paraphrase Jung . . .&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Whoever looks outside, dreams;&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;Whoever looks inside, awakes.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>--Carl Jung&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;To be continued.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sZT0QsaIHlM/Wdy9lF3bweI/AAAAAAAAC04/hgVOvolRh-83_xSJjACZKHbSCp4eTEU5gCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sZT0QsaIHlM/Wdy9lF3bweI/AAAAAAAAC04/hgVOvolRh-83_xSJjACZKHbSCp4eTEU5gCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_10.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-5659014095341112960Mon, 09 Oct 2017 15:13:00 +00002017-10-10T08:24:05.430-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Five<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"So what else is this deal all about?" To continue with point #6 in the discussion from 6 October 2017"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>6. Being able to reduce arrogance and egotism and eliminating the false belief in "different-from-ment" and "better-than-ment" and then understanding that one is neither "special" nor "Special" nor "different" nor "better" and that what is called "a human" or "person" is actually nothing more than a "composite unity."&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To review two pointers from that earlier post:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the movement along the "path," answering the question about "the identity of the Am-ness" can lead to an early level of freedom if the body-mind-personality triad is replaced with the triad of elements-air-energy (a.k.a., "the composite unity")&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How many persons on the planet can never be offended, as is the case with the one that can ask, "<i><b>WHO</b></i> - what part of this temporarily-manifested unity - can be offended? The oxygen part? The energy part? The element part? Of course not. There is no <b><i>WHO</i></b>, but the problems of humanity manifest when persons believe in their assumed <i><b>WHO-NESS</b></i>. There is no part of those three that can be offended, so there is no part of the triad that can be robbed of total freedom and total peace.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Total freedom and total peace. Such can never manifest when identified with the triad of body-mind-personality. Such can manifest when the triad of the composite unity is understood, so to continue with yesterday's pointer that there is no difference in a composite unity that is labeled "tree" or "log" and the composite unity that is labeled "human."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why does this near-universal sense among persons of being "different from" or "special" or "unique" exist, other than faulty programming and faulty conditioning and ignorance? You, the tree, the roach, the snake, the bird, the fish, the deer, "other people" of differing economic, racial, sexual, and national persuasions or identities: no difference. All just plays in appearance.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This coming winter, if logs are placed into the fireplace in the morning, those logs which appeared to be one thing will have seemingly disappeared and something else will have seemingly appeared. What will remain will appear to be ashes, not unlike what will remain when this plant food body called "floyd" is cremated someday.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet nothing more than a temporary "coming together" of elements led to the first appearance, and a "coming apart" of those elements led to the second appearance. In that process where appearances changed and generated a belief that "logs became ash," nothing was created and nothing was destroyed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics assures that appearances will change because whatever comes together in the relative will eventually come apart.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If the temperature is warm enough, one could place what persons call "an ice cube" on the street and soon persons would say that "a puddle of water has appeared." Yet there was only H2O before and H2O afterwards. Nothing changed except the perception / misperception. Same with "floyd" and "logs." Same with You and All.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How is it that, in those processes, nothing was created and nothing was destroyed? All is matter / energy, and neither matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed. Fourth graders know that from their basic science classes.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But add in the ego-states of "The Proud Parents To Be," for example, let them see the result of an act of friction that began nine months earlier, and watch their pride grow as they claim that they "created" a baby.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(The truly delusional will even claim that a supreme being worked with two human beings so that the "creation" is really special, having both natural and supernatural involvement. How truly special that child must be with a god involved in its "creation." Talk about upgrading an illusion. Talk about Super-Sizing an ego-based fantasy.)&nbsp;</div><br />Then observe how delusional they will remain as a result of believing in their false roles which are supported by false pride and, yes, by arrogance generated over the child that will be seen by them as the most beautiful or most handsome, as the cutest of all, as the most intelligence of all, <i>ad infinitum, ad nauseum.</i><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They will be so ignorant as a result of acculturation and assumption of ego-states (and will be so driven by the accompanying egotism) that they cannot or will not acknowledge the basic facts about matter and energy that were set forth in their basic science class in the fourth grade.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, they will program that child to believe that its beautiful or handsome body can last forever and that they will all be together for now in "this world" and that they will all be together in "that world" later.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ignorance of belief in the concept of body-mind-personality continuity will be introduced, and then duality will soon follow as the child is taught that it must be "good" and not "bad" in order for all of them to be together in the "better place someday forever" rather than the child being separated and placed in the "worst place someday forever" if it is not "good."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, wherefore this sense of "different from" or "special" or "unique"? That sense is all rooted in ego-states, egotism, and ignorance-driven delusions. The tree. The human. No difference except in vibrational rates. Both examples of the temporary, composite unity.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for that body-mind-personality continuity that the non-Realized hope for, what can be learned from observing the logs which will be burned in the fireplace? Can ashes be turned back into a log? No. Can the elements that were combined for a time re-combine later in another world and be resurrected as a log, or as something else? No.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Can the logs that were good logs and that burned well be elevated in some next life into some "higher form," maybe a lovely log cabin on a mountainside? No. Will the bad logs that were still green and did not burn so well be subjected to another cycling as a "lower form," maybe as a rock? No.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And during the manifested days of its "logness," can the log be interfered with or offended? No. In fact, is the log any less a mirage - any less misperceived - than the smoke rising from the fire on a winter morning or the false ego-states which humans assume? No.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Logs engage with nothing that is not real. Can a log's ego be bruised and inspire it to end a connection it had with other logs in a rake? No. Can it "break relationship" because it was "slighted" or "not adored enough" by another log? No. Can it hate another log because it believes that it deserves to be treated like royalty but was not? Again, no.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Can another log witness human behavior and learn from humans that treating others <b>like royalty</b> will make them neither a queen or princess nor a king or prince but does sometimes make them behave <b>like a royal</b> pain in the ass? No. Only humans that are awake, aware, and conscious can see that potential consequence.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet stability and peace <i><b>are</b></i> both attainable among those persons who realize that distortions are distortions and among those who then understand the truth which can be known but cannot be stated.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rXleoliYA8o/WduMjVvMyqI/AAAAAAAAC0o/tmZ5ZZ8DrDobP9vCfcaLmeWucJraGsxzgCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rXleoliYA8o/WduMjVvMyqI/AAAAAAAAC0o/tmZ5ZZ8DrDobP9vCfcaLmeWucJraGsxzgCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_9.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-8955339894400616615Sun, 08 Oct 2017 12:34:00 +00002017-10-08T08:42:54.959-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Four<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>&nbsp;[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>THE RATIONALE FOR THE NON-DUAL UNDERSTANDING, PART II&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[<i>Continued from yesterday</i>]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet the instinctive drives for connection, which life-sustaining and life-enhancing elements of the relative existence can offer, can become interrupted on occasion, or disabled at times, or even rendered totally inoperative. Some will actually normalize separating and "breaking relationships." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For example, forty-seven years ago (while totally asleep and living under the influence of <i>a broken picker</i>), I connected with a woman who was just beginning to put together a long chain of marriages - in and out of eight so far, according to the latest report. As that connection was ending, her explanation was: "I have figured out that I like <i>falling</i> in love . . . I just don't like <i>being</i> in love."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The answer to the question I asked ("What in the hell is that supposed to mean, and when are you going to seek treatment for the insanity that came up with that idea?") has yet to be sought and found, evidently.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many factors can lead to the interrupting or disabling of the natural drives for connection, and most of those factors either fall into the category of unnatural or supernatural. Other factors are rooted in ignorant belief systems and in the agendas of personalities / false identities / roles / etc. (all of which can be addressed by the non-dual understanding).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some of the unnatural factors were mentioned earlier, namely:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. The warped programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination which inspire . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(a) an unnatural preference for separation, based in the notions of arrogance and superiority and different-from-ment (and therefore better-than-ment); and which can lead to belief systems (which are based in beliefs that are both unnatural and supernatural / religious) and which are based in such arbitrary factors as skin color; religious affiliation (or lack thereof); and based in . . . </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(b) the denomination or sectarian sub-category of one's religion; political affiliation; sexual preference; economic status; state or region of one's domicile; the nation in which one abides (see "xenophobia"); the economic system preferred (capitalism, communism, socialism, etc.); <i>ad infinitum</i>.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some other factors which can lead to the interrupting or disabling of the natural drives for connection include:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. Personality influences.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of the nine basic personality types which are manifest in varying degrees in the mind of every human . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(a) a healthy Type Four can prefer the solitude but a psychically-unhealthy Type Four can become trapped in escapism and isolation;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(b) psychically-unhealthy Types Fives and Nines can become trapped in avoidance;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(c) psychically-unhealthy Type Sevens (prone to develop the Addictive Personality Disorder) can become trapped in escapism (see "Stephen Paddock" for a current example of that type), and if the Type Eight wing of the Type Seven is exerting its influence, then the addict can also become sociopathic and psychopathic (with Paddock also illustrating that scenario);<br /><br />additionally,</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(d) those with a high Type Six and Eight combination likely have attachment disorders;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(e) those with a high Type Six and high Type Four combination may well have the Borderline Personality Disorder which leads to a highly-unstable "hug-slug" / "I love you, no wait, I hate you" / "I want to be connected with you, no wait, I don't want to be connected to you" mentality.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In all of those cases, the hidden / subconscious fear-and-desire-based agendas of personalities can lead to the interrupting or disabling of the natural drives for connection.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though the drives to connect with water sources, food sources, socialization sources, and sex sources are natural in their origins, they are still dualistic in their nature. They all involve an "A" wanting something from a "B" (or from a host of "C's" and "D's" and "E's" etc., etc., etc.) be those "et cetera's" a host of spouses or a host of "lovers" or a host of things being drunk or a host of things being eaten, or a host of houses or a host of bank accounts or a host of caretakers or a host of cars or a host of anything and everything which can be collected and accumulated and then attached to and hoarded.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At any rate,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">when belief systems become dominated by the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness, (symptoms Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity");&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">when personality identifications bring along all of their subconscious agendas which generate insane thoughts and words and actions;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">when ego-state assumption and the egotism which comes with those false identities generate a sense of being different from and better than others - based in totally arbitrary criteria -&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">then, as viewers of the first "<i>Ghostbusters</i>" movie were asked, "Who you gonna call?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A few might call someone familiar with the non-dual-understanding, but most are going to call a divorce lawyer or a gun salesman or the leader of a white supremacist group or a neo-Nazi group or an Alt-Right group or some other separation-seeking hate group rather than ever try to grasp the Oneness.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So it is, and so it has long been, and so it is likely to remain.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To that end, the non-dual understanding can assist in also understanding this:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No one is going to "change the world." This understanding is about, as Maharaj said, realizing that "You are not in the world - that the world is in you" (meaning, "in your mind").&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That fictional "world" is a result of programming, conditioning, etc.; a result of having been assigned and / or adopted false identities; a result of normalizing chaos and instability; a result of normalizing the false notions of "being better than others" and "being separate" and "being disconnected"; and a result of the totally insane belief systems which are passed down from one generation to the next.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If the non-dual understanding comes, then the natural drives can spontaneously do what the natural drives do, but the concepts of "connecting" or "disconnecting" in ways which are driven by unnatural and supernatural motivators will disappear as the sense of Oneness brings with it a sense of Real Love.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, one's life can flow as did Maharaj's, which he described this way:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Wisdom tells me I am nothing, Love tells me I am everything, and between the two my life flows."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DwdYmRoEKng/WdoXa-vW54I/AAAAAAAAC0Y/aSw7QAhitrASKRqxuWEburyoKHtkg1QRQCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DwdYmRoEKng/WdoXa-vW54I/AAAAAAAAC0Y/aSw7QAhitrASKRqxuWEburyoKHtkg1QRQCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and in several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_8.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-1537249637528583902Sat, 07 Oct 2017 15:27:00 +00002017-10-07T11:47:38.555-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Three<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE RATIONALE FOR THE NON-DUAL UNDERSTANDING, PART I&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To answer, "What is this all about?" or "What is this whole non-dual understanding really about?" one must first see that the understanding is something with relevance for all humankind.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And to understand what the deal is regarding something that is for all humankind, then one must understand what all humankind is about at its very core (and that is something which is not nearly as complex as some make it out to be).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So what seems to have been central in the totality of the complete human experience? For that matter, what seems to be central to the totality of the experiences of all living things?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The three basic, innate natural drives among humans and almost all living things are the thirst drive, the hunger drive, and the sex drive.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>THE THIRST DRIVE</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Look at the development of non-nomadic communities and see that they all alongside rivers or near other sources of water, be it the Yangtze, the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube, the Tiber, the Seine, the Thames or along oceanfronts and gulf coasts and next to lakes and streams. It has historically been the thirst drive which determined where humans first settled.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>THE HUNGER DRIVE</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, the hunger drive has controlled humans' lives. It led some to be nomadic and to migrate and led others to settle near sources of edible vegetation or fish or meat.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is also a connection stage which manifests prior to the full-blown activation of the sex drive.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>PRE-PUBERTY&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bonding connections are formed, beginning with infants and the providers who address the thirst and hunger drives of children.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Typically, even early on, social connections begin to be of interest to children which develop into community connections among adults for the sake of safety and the fulfillment of other human needs.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>POST-PUBERTY,&nbsp;</i> <b>THE SEX DRIVE </b><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Post-puberty, once the thirst and hunger drives are satisfied, then it's all about the sex drive after that:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Introducing relatives and friends to persons in whom they might be interested. Courting. Dating. Clubbing. Singles' groups. Forming religious affiliations for the purpose of mate finding. Joining dating services and focusing on "Love Connections." Thirteenth stepping in 12-step groups. Engagements. Marriages. Affairs at work. Affairs in the neighborhood. Divorcing and re-marrying. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because of the three basic, instinctive drives, humans are forever <b>trying to connect</b>: connecting to sources of water, connecting to sources of food, connecting socially, and being driven to connect to sources of sex. Connections. Connections. Connections.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the drive for connection is being controlled first by <b>the primitive, reptilian brain</b> which generates fears and obsessions and compulsions and rigidity and secondly by <b>the mammalian brain</b> (the emotionally-intoxicating <b>limbic brain)</b> which generates duality because it determines if persons feel "positive" or "negative" about something or someone, determines when persons feel "superior" vs. "inferior," and determines when persons feel "dominant" vs. "submissive."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[<i>Only after those two parts of the brain have their say first might one's cerebral cortex activate and allow the use of logic and reason to differentiate between what is in one's best and wisest interests (relatively speaking) as opposed to being controlled blindly and subconsciously by the desires being generated by the reptilian and limbic parts of the brain.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Thus, the brain is forever in an unfair fight, the reasoning part facing off against two opponents with agendas that have nothing to do with either logic and reason or with sane and wise decision-making.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>By the way, sexual orientations differ among humans because differences can become established within the limbic brain - especially within the hypothalamus.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>That is one reason why adults - and now many children as young as the age of five or six - are contesting their gender identification. Another contributing factor lies in the widespread bastardization of the food supply with its additives and manipulations. Consider this from Health.com:&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>A salmon that grows to market size twice as fast as normal. Dairy cows that produce 15 percent more milk. Beef cows that grow 20 percent faster.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>What do these hyper-productive animals have in common? Thanks to injections and implants (in the case of cows) and thanks to genetic engineering (in the case of salmon), all of those contain artificially high levels of sex and / or growth hormones.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>So many persons are being abused in the U.S. and in other places around the globe by the most ignorant and most religious among us because young children and adults are being honest about how they truly feel, that being determined by both brain and emotional factors as well as by other highly-influential physiological factors.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Moreover, the different sexual orientations are not limited to humans. Homosexuality is commonplace in nature. There are thirteen homosexual pairs of penguins in the New York City Zoo.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>As of 1999, about 500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms have been documented engaging in same-sex behaviors. Though I am what some call "straight," I could care less about who is doing what with whom or what consenting adults are doing in their own bedrooms or whatever animals or birds might be doing in the forests or streams. It is all much ado about nothing</i>.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At any rate, to understand the three parts of the brain which are driving persons and to understand the three basic drives which are manifest in all living things, the end result is this: neither birds nor fish nor animals not humans are actually consciously deciding what they think and say and do. They are almost all functioning unconsciously, but the non-dual understanding can interrupt that pattern.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As Gardiner Morse points out, "We can be too impulsive or too deliberate for our own good; one moment we hotheadedly let our emotions get the better of us, and the next we’re paralyzed by uncertainty.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The closer scientists look, the clearer it becomes how much we’re like animals. We have dog brains, basically, with a human cortex stuck on top, a veneer of civilization. This cortex is an evolutionarily-recent invention that plans, deliberates, and decides. But not a second goes by that our ancient dog brains aren’t conferring with our modern cortexes to influence their choices—for better and for worse—and without us even knowing it."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the rationale for the non-dual understanding is rooted in this:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: lime;"><b>There is among the masses - and may have always been - an urgency to connect, to feel the feeling that come with a sense of connectedness. So why is that not leading to Real Love and the peace that comes when that is tapped into? Because a desire to connect, and the fear that one might not connect - are rooted in duality. "A" wants to be connected to "B." See? That involves TWO. The non-dual message does not invite "A" to connect with "B" and does not offer an invitation for "A" to connect to "B" and "C" and " D" and "ALL"; instead, it offers an invitation for all humans to see that . . .&nbsp;</b></span><br /><i><span style="color: lime;"><b>there is only "A," period.&nbsp;</b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, after considering the influence of the basic drives and the influence of the reptilian and mammalian brains, factor in . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">the influence of ignorant and insane programming and conditioning and domestication and acculturation and brainwashing and indoctrination&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">combined with . . .</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">the assignment of false, personal identifications which all have hidden subconscious agendas&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and it is should become easy to understand why persons typically have no ability to make conscious choices though they are willing to fight over that fact and claim, "I <i>am too</i> making my own choices and decisions!"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is the non-dual process which&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(1) can guide seekers along a "path" and which&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(2) affords them the opportunity to be freed from having their every thought and word and action determined by subconscious and illogical and ignorant and insane influences and which&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(3) can free them from being influenced by the agendas of fear-and-desire-generating ego-states / personalities and which&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(4) can afford seekers the opportunity to tap into the part of the brain which allows for sane and sound and logical decisions to finally be made because they are, finally, totally awake, totally aware and totally conscious.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cBiAy9_Lqjk/WdjsYsf7dkI/AAAAAAAAC0I/UU18B2FzM9k1-t69KOsbgujLfHoZhZ4VwCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cBiAy9_Lqjk/WdjsYsf7dkI/AAAAAAAAC0I/UU18B2FzM9k1-t69KOsbgujLfHoZhZ4VwCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>xx(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_7.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-8349443574084560689Fri, 06 Oct 2017 14:45:00 +00002017-10-06T10:45:15.016-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part Two<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, what's it all about? That is, what is the non-dual understanding about and why should anyone consider the possibility of attaining that understanding?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>5. Being free of instability and chaos is dual-mindedness. When Yeshu'a ("Jesus") was offering non-duality pointers during the final years of that manifestation, he said: "A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways."&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See, neither dual-mindedness nor the instability and chaos it generates can be compartmentalized. If one is, say, unstable and chaotic in traffic, one will also be unstable in all of one's relationships, at work, while shopping, etc. All occasions and events will becomes sources of impatience and annoyance and irritation and frustration and exasperation and anger.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What else is it about?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>6. Being able to reduce arrogance and egotism and eliminating the false belief in "different-from-ment" and "better-than-ment" and then understanding that one is neither "special" nor "Special" nor "different" nor "better" and that what is called "a human" or "person" is actually nothing more than a "composite unity."&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A site visitor sent this back in 2011:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Understanding your teachings about the composite unity is at least for now providing some real relief. Thanx.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reply:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, the composite unity is not "my teachings." It is a part of "the teachings." Many have sent comments like yours, though, with a few inquiries about that understanding, so further discussion will follow.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First, understand that the "journey" begins not with finding out who you are (or Who / What You Are) but with finding out all that you are not. The identity triad of body-mind-personality must be discarded during the early steps along the "path," well before any final clarity comes about a non-phenomenal identity (or even no identity).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thus, in the interim along the way, being able to answer questions about "the identity of the Am-ness" can lead to an early level of freedom if the body-mind-personality triad is replaced with an understanding of the triad of elements-air-energy (a.k.a., "the composite unity").&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is a tree but a collection of elements that have come together temporarily to form (1) a space in which the consciousness has manifested temporarily and (2) a space that circulates oxygen? As always, the pointer here is that there is no difference in any "things" on the planet except for the rate at which the energy within vibrates.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thus, a "human" is also a collection of elements with a temporary manifestation of a quantity of conscious-energy and with oxygen circulating into and out of the space. Is there any difference in what is called "a tree" and "a human"? No. Consider also:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A plant / tree uses carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. Oxygen is left over after that process. The plant or tree will use part of the supply of oxygen itself for respiration, but there is more than enough left over which is unwanted and unneeded by the tree.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The surplus, therefore, is released into the atmosphere and provides oxygen for humans and other forms as well. So the tree, as is the case with humans, is composed of a combination of elements; the tree, as is the case with humans, circulates oxygen; and the tree, as is the case with humans, provides a space in which conscious-energy can temporarily manifest.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet how many persons are totally free of the influence of ego-state assumption and its accompanying egotism and therefore able to admit that they are no more "special" or "different" or "unique" than the ugliest, most deformed tree on the planet?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How many persons on the planet can never be offended, as is the case with the one that can ask, "<i><b>WHO</b></i> - what part of this temporarily manifested unity - can be offended? The oxygen part? The energy part? The element part? Of course, the answer is 'no part.'&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no <i><b>WHO</b></i> because there is no <i><b>WHONESS</b></i> associated with any of the three parts of the composite unity; therefore, there is no part of those three that can be offended, so there is no part of the triad that can be robbed of total freedom and total peace."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To understand the composite unity is to be free of false beliefs about identities, about personality identifications.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be free of personality identifications is to be free of being driven by the hidden, subconscious agendas of personas and to be free of allowing their desires and fears to determine every thought that is thought, every word that is spoken, and every action that is taken.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And to be free of allowing personas to determine subconsciously every thought that is thought, every word that is spoken, and every action that is taken is to be able, for the first time ever, to make conscious choices which are based in wisdom rather than in emotional intoxication and unconsciousness and distortion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MREBsBukiSY/WdeUdjllYlI/AAAAAAAACz4/0aln1zVPDa8wy8JI9f8mXqkxyY01E26bQCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MREBsBukiSY/WdeUdjllYlI/AAAAAAAACz4/0aln1zVPDa8wy8JI9f8mXqkxyY01E26bQCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non_6.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-617073711375666570Thu, 05 Oct 2017 16:44:00 +00002017-10-05T12:44:31.971-04:00A Review and Overview of Recent Non-Dual Quotes and Pointers: "So What's It All About?" Part One<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS </h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So, what's it all about? That is, what is the non-dual understanding about and why should anyone even consider the possibility of seeking that understanding?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1. Putting an end to not being able to differentiate between dream and reality, between true and false, and thereby be free of blindness and distortion.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why put an end to that? Let's turn to a recent event to answer the question:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stephen Paddock accumulated an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons modified to function like automatic-fire machine guns in order to increase the "effective" fire rate of 120 rounds to a rate of around 700 rounds per minute.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, he booked a room overlooking a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, knocked out two windows in his room on the 32nd floor, and opened fire on the crowd of people below, firing with only brief pauses for around ten minutes, killing nearly 60 people and injuring over 500.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even after that, his girlfriend Marilou Danley described him as <b>"kind"</b> and <b>"caring."</b> (Really? So was he being "kind" and "caring" when he allowed workers at a Starbucks hear him tell you, "You don’t need my casino card for this. I’m paying for your drink, just like I’m paying for you." See? Blindness. Distortion.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mass murder Ted Bundy was described the same way by many women.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And mates and spouses who abuse and kill their mates and spouses were originally seen in the same light (or in the same absence of light, to be more accurate). Blindness. Distortion.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While many see warning signs along the way, those abused or killed were unable to see clearly, unable to see the warning signs. Billions and trillions of persons in the history of human "relationships" have either been fooled or fooled themselves because they were blinded by their own hidden agendas, by their willingness to spin the truth if they saw it or - more often - by having seen the truth at all about the persons whom they wanted to hook up with or marry.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here, it is said that the maxim that "love is blind" is not accurate. A more accurate way to put it is to say: "So-called love is color blind, because people who think they are 'in love' cannot see red flags even when they are waved before their very eyes a thousand times." Blindness. Color blindness. Distortion.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bill O’Reilly, a conservative pundit who was fired by Fox News earlier this year following multiple allegations of sexual harassment, said of Paddock's act, “This is the price of freedom. The Second Amendment is clear that Americans have a right to arm themselves for protection. Even the loons.” Many who oppose every kind of gun control law nodded their heads in agreement. Blindness. Distortion.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for loons, the president- in a payback to the National Rifle Association gun lobby who helped elect him - had earlier signed an order which made it easier for those who potentially have a mental health condition to buy a gun anyway. Blindness. Distortion.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider the traits of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Would one be able to spot the ignorance and stupidity and insanity of someone responding to the rampant obesity in the U.S. by defending over-eating and saying, "This is the price of being able to enjoy really tasty foods which are always the foods that are most loaded with flavor-giving fat. Accept it. Stop trying to educate people to eat wisely."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Would one be able to spot the ignorance and stupidity and insanity of someone defending the fact that many children are unsupervised and play in the street where speeding cars are passing by arguing that, "This is the price of a child's freedom to have a good time. Who wants to play only in the yard all day?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What else is this non-dual deal all about?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2. Related to #1, putting an end to being fooled, whether by oneself or by others.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One fact about a dream is that, in a dream, one can dream that he or she is waking up, getting up, getting ready to go to work, talking to others, etc. Yet even as all of that is being dreamed, the persons doing the dreaming are still totally asleep.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of those trapped in what he called their "kindergarten-level spirituality," Maharaj said:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They are functioning under the delusion that they are standing in the full light of the noonday sun when, in fact, they are actually only standing in the dull light of dawn."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thus, on one level, this non-dual deal is about bringing to an end the entrapment of the masses in a state of being easily fooled, and being fooled results from . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(a) first being fooled by one's parents (or whatever adults influenced one's thoughts and actions from early on by passing along bogus beliefs as absolute truth);&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and next results from&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(b) fooling yourself because you are allowing your thoughts and words and actions to be driven by the foolishness "they" taught you;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and then later results from . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(c) having become so separated from truth and reality and reason and logic and being so acclimated to being inundated with lies and nonsense and being out of touch with reality and lacking reason and logic and having normalized nonsense that other persons throughout one's adulthood years are able to fool her or him along with all others among the masses.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3. Related to both #1 and #2, being able to see all with a clear and accurate perspective and then being able to put all in proper perspective.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A clear perspective would provide one the ability to turn down all offers to accept membership in "The Confederacy of Dunces" Club. Thomas Hardy, in his novel entitled <b>Far From the Madding Crowd</b> (that title taken from Thomas Gray's 18th-century poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard") discussed the importance of man's connection to, and understanding of, the natural world," just as Maharaj did with via the nisarga ("natural") yoga.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, this deal is about moving far away from all that is unnatural and / or supernatural.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A proper perspective would provide one the ability to see that so much of what persons are angry about and what they rant about and what they fight about and what they kill because of is really (as the non-dualist William Shakespeare wrote over 400 years ago) "much ado about nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What else is this non-dual deal all about?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4. Becoming aware of one's actual mental condition and being aware of the existence of an Ultimate Sickness which has been passed down to nearly every person on planet earth.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As persons can dream that they are awake when they are still asleep, so persons can dream that they are well when, in fact, they are very, very sick.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The sane and the insane can be in touch with their physical condition. If sick, both the sane and insane can be aware of their physical sickness because of discomfort and pain.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By contrast, those with the Ultimate Sickness are mentally sick but can be totally unaware of their mentally-ill condition because they blame their discomfort on externals rather than on internals and because they are often dissociated from - or in denial of - their mind-based suffering and misery.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ultimate Sickness results in&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(a) persons thinking they are wise when they are actually most unwise&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and in&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(b) persons thinking they are making choices when their thoughts and words and actions are all actually being determined and controlled by the subconscious agendas of their assigned and assumed personalities, a.k.a., their false identities, roles, characters, etc. being played on the stage of the "Theater of the Lie."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: orange;">NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qs9mYcz2AYM/WdZdSds_c1I/AAAAAAAACzo/qvXq8Fe-WC08JSGgG-WoQoe_pxWFy5pigCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Qs9mYcz2AYM/WdZdSds_c1I/AAAAAAAACzo/qvXq8Fe-WC08JSGgG-WoQoe_pxWFy5pigCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-review-and-overview-of-recent-non.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-9040148125981050759Wed, 04 Oct 2017 15:10:00 +00002017-10-04T11:12:56.192-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, The Conclusion<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj] </b></span></div><br />To continue with the sharing of certain quotes which point toward the non-dual understanding:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>excerpted from the book</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more&nbsp;</b></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE NON-DUALITY MESSAGE OFFERED IN FICTION </b><i>(Continued)</i></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Jack Kerouac</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">“Finding Nirvana is like locating silence.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The page is long, blank, and full of truth. When I am through with it, it shall probably be long, full, and empty with words.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Love is all.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Listen closely . . . the eternal hush of silence goes on and on throughout all this, and has been going on, and will go on and on. This is because the world is nothing but a dream and is just thought of and the everlasting eternity pays no attention to it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Happiness consists in realizing it is all a great strange dream.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Questioner: " . . . Do you want to go on being fooled every damn minute of your life?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Answer: "Yes . . . ."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Michael Connelly&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was long past believing in God—the horrors he had seen documented had little by little sapped his stores of faith. In those seemingly final days, as his own heart withered and tapped out its final cadences, he did not grasp desperately for his lost faith as a shield or a means of easing the fear of the unknown. Instead, he was accepting of the end, of his own nothingness. He was ready. It was easy to do."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Mary Shelley</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Mary Shelley's book entitled <b>Frankenstein</b>, Victor Frankenstein and the "monster" he created represent a duality in one respect, but - on the other hand - represent two sides of a single entity. By the end of the novel, there is a shift in the one that represents "good" and the one that represents "evil" - the man or the monster. The man-made "creation" / "creature" is actually kind and innocent but misunderstood and mistreated while, inevitably, Victor ends up in a barren area being chased by his own creation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In the traditional fairy tale <b>"The Beauty and the Beast"</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">and</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">in Victor Hugo's <b>"The Hunchback of Notre Dame"</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. . . there is a treatment of the dualistic "beauty" vs. "ugliness" that is reinforced by acculturation. There is in both cases one that is considered by the culture's standards to be ugly but who is in love with one that the cultures deem to be far superior as a result of physical appearance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In the traditional fairy tale <b>"Goldilocks and the Three Bears"</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. . . the girl's complaints all contained dualities, ranging from porridge that was too hot vs. porridge that was too cold; from two chairs that were the wrong size big vs. one that was too right; and from a bed that was too hard vs. one that was too soft.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical <b>The Phantom of the Opera</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>. . . t</b>he musical is also based on "The Beauty and the Beast" model. The phantom is also a lonely man seeking love but a man who is also dualistically capable of being bitter and angry and capable of hatred and even murderer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;In Robert Lewis Stevenson's <b>"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. . . Dr. Jekyll is a docile man whereas Mr. Hyde displays the a vicious sense of malevolence and cruelty.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">In Abraham "Bram" Stoker's <b>"Dracula"</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. . . Dracula is part "normal man," part "soulless killer." Werewolves are part "innocent humans," part "uncontrollable killer."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>NON-DUALITY POINTERS CO-OPTED BY VARIOUS RELIGIONS THROUGHOUT MANY MILLENNIA&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> 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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style><![endif]--> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Religions all have their special leader / savior / prophet, their supposedly "holy book," and their varying concepts about a god or gods or goddesses. Yet they all have much in common because they share a common root: their dogma and principles and beliefs have all been drawn from the same well of ancient myths and superstitions and previously-established pagan religions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of their god or gods and goddesses, Maharaj said: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even some "non-dualists" have mimicked religious persons and have come up with this or that particular book that they deem to be "special,"or have come up with these or those particularly "special" writings and have come up with one or another supposedly special seer or guru or teacher.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of their special books, Maharaj said: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Of those deemed to be "special," Maharaj warned seekers to stay away from such types (whom he dismissed as "Big Name Teachers" who will never provide what should actually be sought). </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The irony: while religions have freely plagiarized pointers offered by non-dual teachers over the millennia - taking credit for the insights from others rather than giving credit to those that originally shared what they have repeated - they have never been able to adhere to pure, non-dual teachings. Nevertheless, many of them have shared certain non-dual pointers which they "borrowed" along the way:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><b>ZOROASTRIANISM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the earliest conceptions of dualism came from the Persian Religion of Zoroastrianism (mid-fifth century B.C.) which taught that "Ahura Mazda" was the eternal creator of all "good things" and taught that all thing which ran counter to Ahura Mazda's order - and which were therefore "bad" - came from "druj."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>EGYPTIAN RELIGION</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Egyptian Religious beliefs contrast the Gods Seth (disorder, death) and Osiris (order, life).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>GREEK and ROMAN RELIGIONS</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Greeks made up tales about other-worldly powers to explain the things they deemed "good" and the things they deemed "bad," and eventually the myth-based gods and goddesses evolved into the Greeks' religion. After the Romans conquered the Greeks, they adopted the Greek gods and goddesses but gave them Roman names.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>JUDAISM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their supposedly special book: "The Torah" or "Pentateuch": Five Books Supposedly Written by "Moses"; also The first five books of the Christians' "Old Testament"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">["Moses" is in quotes because he likely never existed. The writer may have been a composite of many writers, but what has been credited to him has been discredited. There is no historical record of the Jews having been enslaved by the Egyptians and later freed by one particular man. The Egyptians had slaves from many different regions, but the facts end there. Moreover, there was no parting of the Red Sea and the writer called Moses plagiarized the summative statement of non-duality and had the supposed God of Abraham - who was supposedly speaking to him from a burning bush - identify himself as " I AM THAT I AM." The writer had heard the term brought back to the Middle East from the Far East by traders operating caravans between the two regions, but he did not understand that it was written with a semicolon (I AM THAT; I AM") in order to clarify that the THAT-ness is presently but temporary manifested as the AM-ness, making clear that the supposed two-ness is really the One-ness.]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judaism is dualistic, dealing with a lower, material part (the body), and a higher, spiritual part (the soul), which evolved from Platonic Dualism. As with Judaism's copycat religion called "Christianity," there is talk of "this world" and "another world."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>CHRISTIANITY</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their supposedly special book: The "Old Testament" (i.e., the "Old Contract or "Agreement") and "The New Testament"(i.e., the "New Contract or "Agreement"). The "Old Testament" is actually just the supposedly holy writings from the Jewish religion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the Councils of Nicea personalized "satan" (Hebrew = "enemy") and Beelzebub (Hebrew = "God of Insects" or "Lord of the Flies"), the notion of dual gods was introduced. One is said to be "the God of good, the other, the god of evil or bad or sin."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Even early Christian teachings were dualistic, also largely based on Platonic Dualism. Now, there is also a personal dualism in Christianity with a soul-body distinction based on the idea of an immaterial Christian Soul, though Christ - after he began teachings non-duality during the last three years of his life - said that "No one will ever see the Kingdom of Heaven: it is within" and "Heaven and earth shall fade away.")</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eventually, more concepts were added and Christianity shifted beyond Dualism to teaching that a "Holy Trinity" exists. More duality exists in the teaching of a geographic place where eternal rewards shall be enjoyed vs. a geographic place where eternal punishment and pain and misery shall exist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Quotations from <i>the Gnostic Writings</i>&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>(some of which are attributed to YESHU'A, a.k.a., "Jesus the Christ")</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter ['the kingdom' / 'awareness' / the 'peace state']."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>ISLAM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their supposedly special book: "The Koran" or "Quran" or "Qur'an" or "Quoran"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Islam, too, is based in duality with a supposedly eternal reward awaiting in "another world" all of those who behave in certain prescribed ways in "this world." Islam's eventual reward for men who die for Allah will supposedly be endless physical / sexual pleasure not just from seventy-two virgins but also from thousands of wives and whores as well. As for women, well their reward is supposedly to pleasure sexually the Muslim men who died for Allah.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>VEDANTA and ADVAITA&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: The Vedanta philosophy is divided into Dvaita (dualistic) and Advaita (non-dualistic). Dvaita proposes dualism in consciousness and matter, while Advaita does not. (Some modern scientists speak of "energy and matter." Others speak of "energy-matter" or "energy / matter.")</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE NON-DUALITY MESSAGE OFFERED IN FILM</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From "The Matrix"&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Within the prison of your world appears a man who tells you that the world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is neither continuous nor permanent and is based on a misapprehension. He pleads with you to get out of it, by the same way by which you got into it. You got into it by forgetting what you are and you will get out of it by knowing yourself as you are."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Do not try to bend the spoon. It is not the spoon that bends. It's the self that bends."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Now he is starting to believe. There is a difference between knowing about the Path and walking the Path."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there - like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Morpheus: "The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neo: "What truth?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Morpheus: "That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison . . . for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is - you have to see it for yourself." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neo: "What are you doing?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Morpheus: "Your muscles have atrophied. We're rebuilding them."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neo: "Why do my eyes hurt?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Morpheus: "You've never used them before."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Your appearance now is what we call residual self-image. It is the mental projection."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>MOVIES WITH NON-DUALITY THEMES&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Being There (1979)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">About Schmidt&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shutter Island&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Matrix (mainly part one)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 13th Floor&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inception&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Game&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Legend of Bagger Vance&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many parts of the films in The Batman Series&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Touching The Void&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Truman Show&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Nines&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pleasantville&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dark City&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Existenz&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sliding Doors&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Illusion&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Powder&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Groundhog Day&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Devil's Advocate&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tron 1 &amp; 2&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Field of Dreams&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vanilla Sky&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What Dreams May Come</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What The Bleep Do We Know?!&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Calling It Quits&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defending Your Life&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Click&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Contact&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Avatar&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">City of Angels&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Open Your Eyes&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zWFQ8OhadZI/WdTysHhIOGI/AAAAAAAACzU/Wv4QlxtOC94hgXGTdVxnVpUCh5ua_cFtwCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zWFQ8OhadZI/WdTysHhIOGI/AAAAAAAACzU/Wv4QlxtOC94hgXGTdVxnVpUCh5ua_cFtwCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-5710528177820656038Tue, 03 Oct 2017 15:36:00 +00002017-10-03T11:36:42.291-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-Five<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue with the sharing of certain quotes which point toward the non-dual understanding:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>excerpted from the book&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"NATIVE AMERICA" WISDOM&nbsp;</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Many Asians / "Far Easterners" began moving some 25,000 years ago onto the Bering Strait Land Bridge, part of which is under water now but at the time connected the Far East with what is now called "Alaska." Some may have lived on the Strait for thousands of years and then eventually began moving farther east, across the Straits and into what is now called "Canada" and "the U.S." and then south into what is now called "Central America" and "South America."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Speculation and evidence combine to suggest that the migration happened because of changing weather conditions, because of depleted food supplies, and because they were being invaded by whites from the west. The general consensus is that they began moving off the Strait and heading further east and then south some 20,000 years ago.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[Ironically, as they moved east, at least partially to escape brutal white invaders coming from the west, they would settle in "the Americas" but would then eventually be invaded by the descendants of their original invaders who would invade, this time, from the east. In what is now called "the U.S.," 98% of the indigenous peoples would be killed and the remaining survivors would be interred on the remaining 2% of the land on which they had lived and which was "reserved" for "Indians" only.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recently I mentioned that when returning from Louisiana, I passed the remnants of a plantation and the remains of several slave quarters. Soon after that, I passed the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation. Both provide reminders of what the descendants of those white invaders did - and continue to do - to Asians and to Africans and to other non-whites to this day, even as some textbooks in U.S. schools are re-writing and covering up that history.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the descendants of those who survived "The American Holocaust" was born to a Cherokee couple in 1884. She lived in East Texas and would come to be known to me as "Grandmother." She would give birth in 1916 to a son who would be known to me as "my father."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I never heard Grandmother mention the terms "non-dual pointers" or "the Eastern teachings," but both were brought by Asians across the Bering Strait and were spread from (a) the Far East to (b) a small remainder of the still-visible part of the Bering Land Mass (specifically, Diomede on the western coast of Little Diomede Island) and were then spread all the way eventually to Ushuala at the southernmost tip of what is now called "South America."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though neither she nor her fellow indigenous relatives and tribe members likely ever heard the term "non-duality," what they shared from their body of wisdom was exactly that, traceable all the way back to their earliest ancestral home in "the Far East."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here are some pointers from various tribe members that were in touch with the understanding:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If in doubt, be still and wait."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That which is inhaling and exhaling is an illusion; truth can only be found in the empty space of the absolute quiet and the empty moments in between."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Peace can only be found in the silence; once found, it can remain under any conditions."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is possible to be alone and truly like the company kept in the empty moments."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Only excursions into that which is natural can reveal truth."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Even the seasons form a great circle, but they always come back again to where they were."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The life of a human is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where energy moves."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no birth. There is no death. There is no creation. There is no destruction. There are only the cyclings of elements, air, and energy; there is no body-mind-personality continuity."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Harmony with all things is possible, but it cannot manifest in the presence of inner turmoil or in the absence of Full Realization."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw, for I was seeing the shape of all shapes living in harmony as one."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are but one thread."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Peace comes from within when oneness with the universe is realized."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was seen that power need not be sought except for the strength required to fight the greatest enemy—self."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was seen that when self has been eliminated, no more power or strength is required."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It came to be known that another can be disappointed if that is required in order to be free of dual-mindedness and to be true to Self."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was seen that, to be trustworthy, one must first be faithless."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Earth, teach me humility; Earth, teach me to forget myself."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are but one."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Walk in balance."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace which is within.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It appears that where marriage is solemnized by the church and blessed by the priest, it may at the same time be surrounded with customs and ideas of a frivolous, superficial, and even prurient character. Love between a man and a woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self-seeking.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I want to know&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. . . if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">. . . if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>OTHER NON-DUAL POINTERS FROM MORE MODERN SOURCES&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Russell Brand&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>G.I. Gurdjieff&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Without self knowledge . . . man cannot be free and . . . he will always remain a slave."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A considerable percentage of the people we meet on the street are people who are empty inside, that is, they are actually already dead. It is fortunate for us that we do not see and do not know it. If we knew what a number of people are actually dead and what a number of these dead people govern our lives, we should go mad with horror."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A man can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it. This must be understood from the very beginning. One must learn from him who knows."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Man will renounce any pleasures you like but will not give up suffering."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The most I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;“I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God. I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos. That makes me want to grab people on the street and say: ‘Have you HEARD THIS'?”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“While the Copernican principle comes with no guarantees that it will forever guide us to cosmic truths, it's worked quite well so far: not only is Earth not in the center of the solar system, but the solar system is not in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy is not in the center of the universe, and it may come to pass that our universe is just one of many that comprise a multiverse. And in case you're one of those people who thinks that the edge may be a special place, we are not at the edge of anything either.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Again and again across the centuries, cosmic discoveries have demoted our self-image. Earth was once assumed to be astronomically unique, until astronomers learned that Earth is just another planet orbiting the Sun. Then we presumed the Sun was unique, until we learned that the countless stars of the night sky are suns themselves. Then we presumed our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the entire known universe, until we established that the countless fuzzy things in the sky are other galaxies, dotting the landscape of our known universe. Today, how easy it is to presume that one universe is all there is. Yet emerging theories of modern cosmology, as well as the continually reaffirmed improbability that anything is unique, require that we remain open to the latest assault on our plea for distinctiveness: multiple universes, otherwise known as the 'multiverse,' in which ours is just one of countless bubbles bursting forth from the fabric of the cosmos.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A series of articles combined and published as <i>Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind </i>(1901) influenced a fellow named William ("Bill") Griffiths Wilson considerably. He became interested in Eastern teachings, so when he wrote a book which has become "The Bible of Alcoholics," he included much material which he "co-opted," some of which was from articles and books which he read about Eastern Teachings.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many of the pointers he repeated, of course, deal with pointers that "non-dualists" can relate to:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" (a.k.a., "the A.A. Big Book")&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">References are made to “The Great Reality” and use of “the sixth sense” and “the intuition” and it is advised to “cast aside ideas and emotions and attitudes.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In later writings, the author of that book spoke of "physical intoxication, mental intoxication, spiritual intoxication and emotional intoxication" as well as "physical sobriety, mental sobriety, spiritual sobriety and the final level of sobriety, emotional sobriety."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He suggested that his audience did not have a drinking problem but had a "thinking problem."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his writings, the author of that book also spoke of "a total psychic change" that restores one to sanity; of a movement beyond the Realm of the Material and the Realm of the Spirit, reaching a state of awareness that is the essence, and connecting with what he called in the A.A. Big Book one’s "inner resource" (a.k.a., "the inner guru");&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and he spoke of a movement beyond the limited physical 5-sense existence into a constant use of the vital sixth sense;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and of a movement beyond the three-dimensional (height, width, depth) limitations of this (phenomenal) world and into the fourth dimension (or, in Advaitin terms, "the Noumenal).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He wrote about the fallacy of mistaking appearance for the real, writing that "The prosaic steel girder" is not actually what it appears to be but is instead "a mass of electrons."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He wrote, "With few exceptions, our members find that they have tapped <b>an unsuspected inner resource</b> which they presently identify with <b>their own conception of a Power</b> greater than themselves." [<i>Those see "their resource" as within, not without.</i>]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also from the A.A. Big Book, a quotation from Dr. Silkworth: " . . . they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wilson also wrote, “The main problem . . . centers in his mind . . . .”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The first thing apparent was that this world and its people were often quite wrong.” [<i>Note: That means, there is not just something "wrong" with alcoholics but there is something "quite wrong" with all people instead. In other words, all persons are just not quite "right."</i>]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He wrote: "It is constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material world, that outward appearances are not inward reality at all."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The solution is to be “catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace . . . .”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He wrote: "The terms 'spiritual experience' and 'spiritual awakening' are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that <b>the personality change</b> sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[So, yes, he understood that mental and personality disorders were at the root of the illness and originally wrote that the illness is a "two-part sickness of body and mind." He had arranged for certain men in Ohio to write their "stories," sharing how they were recovering from alcoholism via the A.A. program (which he had "co-opted" from the Oxford Group). When those men read the rough draft of his book and saw that Bill was speaking of "a two-fold illness," they explained that if he did not make clear that the sickness is, above all else, a "spiritual malady," then he would not get their stories which he needed to add to his 164 pages in order to make a "big book." He succumbed to the blackmail and talk would thereafter be about "a three-part illness involving body, mind, and - above all else - one's 'spiritual condition," abandoning his original plan to show that the main root of the problem with the Addictive Personality Disorder centers in the mind and in personality disorders."]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the second and subsequent edition, he had the final word when he wrote, "Most of us think this awareness of a Power greater than ourselves is the essence of spiritual experience. Our more religious members call it 'God-consciousness'.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[So he made clear that, in the beginning, "the God part" was a part which only their "religious members" spoke of, those members originally being a group of Catholics from Cleveland whose priest made them split from the original Akron Oxford Group - with threat of excommunication otherwise - and who were the men who made the original "no-spirituality, no stories" demand.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While he was able to insert many pointers in the book based in Eastern teachings, the original intention was to offer a far-greater emphasis on the non-dual understanding than was included in the end. As for the explanation that only the original "religious members" talked about "God," that point was relegated to an appendix at the end of the book which is printed in a small font, so it is seldom given much - or any - attention nowadays. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At any rate, non-dual pointers have long been shared, even by those who never heard the term "non-dual." That has long been the case among those who have, to use the words Bill "co-opted" from someone else, "tapped into the inner resource."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_CgPdLfKV_g/WdOtejSolWI/AAAAAAAACzE/VTZV3IlpGZglShKI4eIhoA4X254kn8fAQCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_CgPdLfKV_g/WdOtejSolWI/AAAAAAAACzE/VTZV3IlpGZglShKI4eIhoA4X254kn8fAQCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-5184689274276972243Mon, 02 Oct 2017 14:24:00 +00002017-10-02T10:24:52.591-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-Four<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>A NOTE TO VISITORS ON A TOPICAL ISSUE:&nbsp;</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">People around the globe today will focus once more on another mass murder in the U.S. In coming days, there will be much talk, talk, talk about "cause" as many will try to identify "<i>the one thing"</i> that led to the event (even though Maharaj explained rightly that "the cause of all is all").&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some will set forth their theories and beliefs about what they see as "a preponderance of evil in the world nowadays." Yet notions about the presence of "evil" will be discounted if one comes to understand that the key driver in such happenings is the Ultimate Sickness and its symptoms (per Maharaj) of "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" which block any chance for True Love to manifest.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What did Maharaj share about that? </div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Maharaj:&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"Stupidity and selfishness are the only evil."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"Without love all is evil. Life itself without love is evil.&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"By all means go and get killed yourself — if that is what you think you should do. Or even go and kill, if you take it to be your duty. But that is not the way to end the evil. Evil is the stench of a mind that is diseased."</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>"Evil is in the wrong approach to problems created by misunderstanding and misuse."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Questioner: "Do you mean to say that between good and evil there is no wall?"&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>M: "There is no wall, because there is no good and no evil. In every concrete situation there is only the necessary and the unnecessary. The needful is right, the needless is wrong."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, to continue with the sharing of certain quotes which point toward the non-dual understanding:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>excerpted from the book&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php">QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </a></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE NON-DUALITY MESSAGE OFFERED IN <i>FICTION</i>&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;Floyd Henderson (from <b>The Board of Directors of Wars</b>)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Look at every drama you’ve ever seen. The main character, who represents you and me and everyone, runs around like a chicken with his head cut off. He is confused and in the dark. Those who are in a position to sit back and witness the drama objectively can see that he's just an actor on a stage and that none of the drama is real. But for entertainment's sake, he and the witnesses can pretend it's real. Both, in fact, can get so absorbed in the role that they can take it to be the real for a time. But even amidst all the drama, a time comes, that moment in the play when even the actor finds out the truth. It is called the 'peripetia' in drama—that moment in the play or the movie when the lead actor finds out that everything he thought to be true is really false; when he sees that he was being misled at every turn; when those he thought he could trust the most and who thought they were telling him the truth were also wrong.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It’s the moment of freedom that comes when one finds out that everything he ever thought or believed or held sacred or thought worth fighting for was a lie. The freedom comes when he gives up all of the concepts he bought into, drops his head in relief and amazement, shakes his head back and forth, wonders for a moment how he had bought into all their crap, smiles at how easily he was duped, watches how all the rest of the play unfolds automatically until its end, and leaves the stage after saying to himself, 'Well sonofabitch. I'll be damned.' And then he laughs. He laughs at it all. And then he's done with it, once and for all.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE NON-DUALITY MESSAGE OFFERED IN <i>NON-FICTION</i>&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">(Maharaj said, <i>"Someday, science will advance to the point that it will affirm the accuracy of the non-dual teachings."</i>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ralph Klein&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A short-term goal is for persons “to understand that they are not the way they appear to be.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[<i>Eliminating personality and addressing the accompanying disorders</i>] “involves a mourning . . . for the loss of the illusion . . . for the loss of an identity, the false self, which the person constructed and with which he or she has negotiated much of his or her life. The dismantling of the false self requires a relinquishing of the only way of being that the [<i>person</i>] has ever known . . . .”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Physicist Barbara McClintock&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Basically, everything is one."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Physicist Erwin Schrodinger&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Physicist Fritjof Capra&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated "building blocks," but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object's interaction with the observer.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Physicist Niels Bohr&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Isolated material particles are abstractions."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Physicist David Bohm&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The new form of insight can perhaps best be called Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement (or, 'holomovement')."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In this movement, there is NO THING. Rather, things are abstracted out of the movement in our perception and thought, and any such abstraction fits the real movement only up to a point, and without limits. Some ‘things’ may last for a very long time and be fairly stable, while others are ephemeral as the shapes abstracted in perceptions of clouds."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The best image of process is perhaps that of the flowing stream, whose substance is never the same. On this stream, one may see an ever-changing pattern of vortices, ripples, waves, splashes, etc, which evidently have no independent existence as such. Rather, they are abstracted from the flowing movement, arising and vanishing in the total process of the flow."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" …To emphasize undivided wholeness, we shall say that what ‘carries’ an implicate order is the holomovement, which is an unbroken and undivided totality. In certain cases, we can abstract particular aspects of the holomovement (e.g., light, electrons, sound, etc), but more generally, all forms of the holomovement merge and are inseparable. Thus, in its totality, the holomovement is not limited in any specifiable way at all. It is not required to conform to any particular order, or to be bounded by any particular measure. Thus, the holomovement is indefinable and immeasurable."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" … Mind and matter are abstractions from the universal flux."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Instead of saying, ‘An observer looks at an object’, we can more appropriately say, ‘Observation is going on, in an undivided movement'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The observation going on is "involving those abstractions customarily called 'the human being' and “the object he is looking at',” [<i>i.e., subject-object witnessing vs. Pure Witnessing</i>.]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Marvin Kaye&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The expert magician seeks to deceive the mind, rather than the eye.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>S.H. Sharp&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“To be a great magician, one must be able to present an illusion in such a way that people are not only puzzled, but deeply moved.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"Griffin"&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is only very recently in the millions of years of human history that the break from nature has become so complete. Each one of us is a wild animal suffering. Conditioning makes us dependent and weak, but we still yearn for the freedom of wildness and the deep satisfaction of living out our feral destinies as a part of the community of life.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How to heal from our self-perpetuated domestication: relearn the life skills that allow us to shed our dependence on civilization and put new trust in the Land to provide for us;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"release our addictions to the many activities and substances that make civilized life bearable; relearn how to live with others; reawaken our atrophied senses and experience the full lushness of life; see the damage from the trauma of domestication; then live in balance.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It takes years of socializing to subdue the power and beauty of a child’s primal instincts. This process is reversible. It is possible to become feral by overcoming the numbness of the civilized condition."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Paul Krassner&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Life on earth was the result of inconceivable coincidence rather than conscious design."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . My own conception was the result of inconceivable coincidence."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ken Kesey&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"My <b>energy</b> is what I do. My <b>image</b> is what other people think I do."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4T93JkOTjr4/WdJJqWCzOAI/AAAAAAAACy0/D9Tyyi3tLHQhj4no3Xn2cKaxAbnq6nsFACLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4T93JkOTjr4/WdJJqWCzOAI/AAAAAAAACy0/D9Tyyi3tLHQhj4no3Xn2cKaxAbnq6nsFACLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-5179694265940711708Sun, 01 Oct 2017 14:31:00 +00002017-10-01T10:31:59.964-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-Three<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS </h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>excerpted from the book&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more&nbsp;</b></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, notice that with the exception of Maharaj and me, most of the quotes in this series are from those that never sought via a non-duality method or non-dual yoga or with any non-dual teacher; nevertheless, they were obviously aware to one degree or another of certain universal truths by way of having tapped into the universal consciousness either via the inner guru / the inner resource or via the way which Maharaj did:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only <i><b>my own experience</b></i>.” (<i>And of course even that happened in the absence of any "experiencer."</i>)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue: </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Transcendentalist Walt Whitman&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her, it is just as lucky to die, and I know it.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I accept reality and dare not question it."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . A leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . I am awake for the first time, and all before has been a mean sleep."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I exist as I am . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Re-examine all that you have been told . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Brad Thor&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider the point of this exchange: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Character 1: "He started by using his wealth to co-opt anyone who could have an impact on popular culture or public opinion. Newspapers, actors, journalists, publishers, politicians, business people, unions - you name it. The idea was to be able to control the media, as well as any other voices Americans trusted. It's ideological subversion, plain and simple. To get it to take hold, though, they needed to begin planting this new way of thinking in the most fertile minds that could get a hold of." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Character 2: "Which means kids."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Character 1: "Precisely. But it wasn't enough to simply plant this new ideology. For it to blossom, it had to grow without being challenged."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Character 2: "Couldn't they be deprogrammed? I'm sure it'd be a monumental task, but . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Character 1: "No. They're completely immune to anything that deviates from their ideological perception of reality and what they have been taught is the 'real' truth. The lens they look through life at has forever been altered. It's both terrifying and brilliant in its totality."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before anyone, even at the cost of your life."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Martin Luther King, Jr.&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Nelson Mandela&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no such thing as part freedom."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. "&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The time comes in the life of any nation when there remains only two choices - submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Immanuel Kant&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Seek not the favor of the multitude . . . but seek the testimony of few; number not voices, but weigh them."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The history of the human race . . . may be regarded as the realization of . . . nature . . . to bring about . . . the only state in which all of the capacities implanted by her in mankind can be fully developed."&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Bruce Lipton&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He reported that most of the subconscious programming of every person on the planet takes place from birth to six years of age; that the habits and beliefs that form the subconscious mind are implanted by the age of six; and that the brain is operating in the delta and theta brain wave states during those early childhood years, making a person susceptible to programming and to accepting even the craziest concepts as truth.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Clive Cussler&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;</b>(or, more accurately, written by one of his many ghost writers)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A character explaining what happened during his trips to the ocean: "An inner feeling always overcame Pitt when he was alone and near the sea. It was as though his soul seeped out of his body, and he became a thing without substance, without form. His mind was purified and cleansed; all mental labor ceased and all thoughts vanished. He was only vaguely aware of hot and cold, smells, touch, and all the other senses, except hearing. He listened to the nothingness of silence . . . . Forgotten for the moment were all his failures, all his victories and all his loves, even life itself was buried and lost in the stillness. He lay dead and floated in the water . . . . Finally, a small swell slapped at his face and he unwittingly inhaled a few drops of salt water."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ivan Petrovich Pavlov&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am convinced that an important stage of human thought will have been reached when the physiological and the psychological, the objective and the subjective, are actually united, when the tormenting conflicts or contradictions between my consciousness and my body will have been factually resolved or discarded."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Lewis Thomas&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Awareness exists in all the individual creatures on the planet—worms, sea urchins, gnats, whales, subhuman primates, superprimate humans, the lot."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Max Planck&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Heinrich Hertz&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Outside our consciousness there lies the cold and alien world of actual things. Between the two stretches the narrow borderland of the senses. No communication between the two worlds is possible excepting across the narrow strip. For a proper understanding of ourselves and of the world, it is of the highest importance that this borderland should be thoroughly explored."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KKTP-NmO8dM/WdD7jKdL8vI/AAAAAAAACyk/kvV4AOxSgksqLbV2XGuRgIdZPFryfxpCwCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KKTP-NmO8dM/WdD7jKdL8vI/AAAAAAAACyk/kvV4AOxSgksqLbV2XGuRgIdZPFryfxpCwCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-4433496445781553491Sat, 30 Sep 2017 13:18:00 +00002017-09-30T09:22:35.003-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-Two<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br />Next,<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>excerpted from the book</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Lao-tzu&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . The wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He who knows himself is enlightened."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nature is not human hearted."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Silence is a source of great strength."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We turn clay to make a vessel, but it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;“If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“When there is no desire, all things are at peace.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;“If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If you want to be given everything, give everything up.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Realize there is nothing lacking . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Empty your mind of all thoughts."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Returning to the source is serenity."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Stop thinking and end your problems.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“At the center of your being, you have the answer: you know who you are."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The name that can be named is not the eternal name."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . The greater whole is undivided."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Jhian Yang&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What we mean by Tao is the way or course of Nature. This way has nothing good or bad. It is a mere flowing of things following the development and decline attributes of the moment."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Richard E. Lingenfelter&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Regarding what is imagined to be seen when all is viewed through blocked consciousness:&nbsp;</i><br /><br />"For it is a land of illusion, a place in the mind, a shimmering mirage of riches and mystery and death. These illusions have distorted its [<i>reality's</i>] landscape and contorted its history."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Robert Burton&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Great feelings will often take an aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Daniel H. Boorstin&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Gary Zukav&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The first man to see an illusion by which men have flourished for centuries surely stands in a lonely place."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Mark Twain&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried to shut up the insane, we should run out of building materials."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Really, what we want now is not laws against crime, but a law against insanity. That is where the true evil lies."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Once, I talked to the inmates of an insane asylum in Hartford. I have talked to idiots a thousand times, but only once to the insane."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A man is what he thinks about all day long."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"For every benefit you receive, a tax is levied."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As soon as there is life there is danger."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have a great deal of company in my house, especially in the morning when nobody calls."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To be awake is to be alive."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"My Aunt Maria asked me to read the life of Dr. Chalmers, which, however, I did not promise to do. Yesterday, Sunday, she was heard through the partition shouting to my Aunt Jane, who is deaf, "Think of it! He stood half an hour today to hear the frogs croak, but he wouldn't read the life of Chalmers."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The frontiers are not east or west, north or south but wherever a man 'fronts' a fact."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the streets and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated; my life is unspeakably mean. No amount of gold or respectability would in the least redeem it - dining with the Governor or a member of Congress!! But alone in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer. I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it. I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America, out of my head and be sane . . . every day."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-travelled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TACMPIMlqvs/Wc-X3Oy9XHI/AAAAAAAACyU/SBC742XUUwQk5UkwewnrefCe4-PVl0dwACLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TACMPIMlqvs/Wc-X3Oy9XHI/AAAAAAAACyU/SBC742XUUwQk5UkwewnrefCe4-PVl0dwACLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_30.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-2703394115654894240Fri, 29 Sep 2017 15:01:00 +00002017-09-29T11:04:46.321-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty-One<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br />Next, <br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">excerpted from the book</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php">&nbsp;QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider when the criticism of Maharaj began:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">it came from among the locals after he abandoned the use of a Hindu / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine; and it came from international persons after he abandoned the use of a Spiritual / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine (many of which had been transcribed from audio tapes and published in a book entitled <b>I AM THAT</b>); and it came after he shifted the focus of his talks onto the problem-and-chaos-generating human mind and shifted to a Psychology / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The criticisms increased when he eventually denounced "the business of spirituality" and urged seekers to stop reading the talks in <b>I AM THAT</b> (which were offered when he was still being influenced by his guru's instructions and by religion and spirituality) and to listen instead to his later talks (which were offering psychology-based principles and pointers which were intended to address "the mind issues" which are at the core of the Ultimate Sickness).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His "evolution" - actually, the evolution of his understanding - came about as he saw one religion-or-spirituality-based method after another failing to address the Ultimate Sickness and as he continued to try to find an effective version of the Ultimate Medicine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The result: he used one yoga after another in combination with the Direct Path Method of Teaching; in the process, he shifted from the use of guru-bhakti and bhakti; to bhakti and jnana (and mention of "atma"); to jnana yoga and nisargan yoga; and finally to the nisarga yoga almost exclusively.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At that point, the criticizing began and included such comments as these:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"The later books of Maharaj do not enjoy the same clarity as 'I Am That'. It seems that he himself got complicated or rather evolved himself or declined maybe as happens to many teachers. It is also the lack of quality of translation in the level of "I Am That".&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"His direct disciples who later on became notable teachers are of an especially low quality (e.g. Ramesh Balsekar, Wolinsky and others) which makes one to wonder how come"&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"At first when he was still listening to his guru he was telling the truth, like he did in 'I AM THAT.' In his other talks, his ego made him start telling things he dreamed up on his own that were not true."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"He deteriorated from one of the great spiritual men of all times to one of the least spiritual people of all times."&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those critics believed that they were telling others something about "a man called Maharaj"; in fact, they were telling anyone (with the wisdom to see it) all about themselves / their selves.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the years when Maharaj was using a Hindu / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine and the years when he was using a Spiritual / Non-Dual compounded version of the Ultimate Medicine, those who were most satisfied with those approaches were the seekers who were either picking up new and good and better false identities via his talks or who were having their already-assumed good and better false identities reinforced.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When the evolution of his understanding reached the third stage, he was totally annihilating all of the false identities assumed by seekers (and supposedly knowers) and was devaluing all of their religious and / or spiritual "experiences" and all of their religious and / or spiritual knowledge (a.k.a., "learned ignorance").&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His invitation to seekers was&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">to abandon all beliefs&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">to abide naturally&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">to abide in the same manner in which every living thing on planet earth abides (except for humans who are driven unconsciously by the bogus content of their minds and by the hidden agendas of their assumed personalities which are forever preoccupied with selfish desires and unfounded fears).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You are invited to read the quotes being offered in this series and to consider the conclusion that Maharaj finally reached, namely, that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with knowing too little dogma; that the Ultimate Sickness has nothing to do with a so-called "sick spirit" or "spiritual malady";&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and that the Ultimate Sickness has everything to do with the duality-based, divisiveness-inspiring content of the nonsensical beliefs stored in human minds post-programming, post-conditioning, post-acculturating, post domesticating, post-brainwashing and post-indoctrinating (which are processes to which all persons are being exposed, beginning in childhood and continuing throughout adulthood as well).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then the invitation is to sit in the silence and contemplate the pointers quoted which touch on a host on non-dual topics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To continue: </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>George Bernard Shaw&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(When asked if he thought there might be life on other planets): His reply was that he was certain that "there had to be life on other planets because people there are obviously using earth as their insane asylum."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Ian McCallum&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We need to stop speaking about the earth being in need of healing. The earth does not need healing. We do. Our task is to rediscover ourselves in Nature. How or where do we begin?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We begin exactly where we are right now, when we look at the world as a mirror, when we discover that our sense of freedom and authenticity is linked to the authenticity and well-being of others, and that includes the animals, the trees, and the land."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To understand wildness is to discover the thread that binds us to all living things."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To distance ourselves from, and worse, to deny our wild ancestry, is to witness its return in all manner of savage outbursts."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE RISING&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">One day&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">your soul will call to you&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">with a holy rage.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">"Rise up!" it will say . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">"Stand up inside your own skin."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;Unmask your unlived life . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Feast on your animal heart.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Unfasten your fist . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;let loose the medicine&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">In your own hand.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Show me the lines . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">I will show you the spoor&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">of the ancestors.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;Show me the creases . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">I will show you the way&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">to the water.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Show me the folds . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">I will show you the furrows&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">for your healing.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Look!" it will say . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;The line of life has four paths -&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">one with a mirror,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">one with a mask,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">one with a fist,&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">one with a heart.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">One day, </div><div style="text-align: center;">your soul will call to you&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">with a holy rage.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And, more recently, this was in the news:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Jim Carrey&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recently, Jim Carrey - a Canadian-American actor, comedian, impressionist, screenwriter, and producer - was asked to clarify some non-dual (and yes, only quasi-non-dual pointers) which he had shared in an interview, points which led many to comment on his "weird talk" and led others to suggest that "his state-of-mind is obviously quite unstable nowadays" (which is a typical reaction when the masses hear non-dual pointers).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When asked, “Are you a Buddhist?” Carrey offered a quasi-non-dual reply: “I’m a Buddhist, I’m a Christian, I’m a Muslim, I’m whatever you want me to be. It all comes down to the same thing. You’re in a loving place or you’re in an unloving place. If you’re with me right now you cannot be unhappy, it’s not possible.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There’s no meaning to any of this. I wanted to find the most meaningless thing that I could come to and join, and here I am. I mean, you’ve got to admit, it’s completely meaningless.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There is no me. There is just things happening. Here’s the thing: It’s not our world. That’s the key. We don’t matter. We don’t matter. There’s the good news.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There’s just a relative manifestation of consciousness appearing, and someone gave 'him' a name, a religion, a nationality, and he clustered those together into something that’s supposed to be a personality, and it doesn’t actually exist. None of that stuff, if you drill down, is real.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I believe I got famous so I could let go of fame, and it’s still happening, but not with me,” he continued. “I’m not a part of it anymore. Dressing happens, doing hair happens, interviewing happens, but it happens without me, without the idea of a ‘me.’ You know what I’m saying? It’s a weird little semantic jump, and it’s not that far, but it’s a universe apart from where most people are.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We’re a bunch of ideas cobbled together to look like a form. There’s a body and there’s a mind, but the body is part of the field of consciousness, just dancing for itself and it’s no different than a plant or a chair or your phone—it’s all one thing. Because we are sentient, there’s a consciousness, and we have to deal with this thing we create, like a fortress of ideas around it. So we say, ‘This is my name and this is my heritage and this is my nationality and here’s my hockey team and these are all of the things that I am.’ That’s the mistake."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The only way to it is to step into the river of tears and the sorrows of your life. The things that everyone is avoiding with everything from drugs to drink to sex and gadgets and whatever else you can distract yourself with, all of it is designed for you to never stop going and moving and, for god sakes, not feel the abyss. Don’t allow yourself to feel the abandonment and pain that you’ve suffered. And I’ve done it; I’m through it. I’m sure there will be things that happen again, but I realized that by letting myself fall into it completely, that it’s not to be feared. Death is not to be feared."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[The interviewer added: <i>"We see themes of thinking about who we truly are, and looking at the difference between our egoic identity and the recognition of self as consciousness. Jim also touches on the interconnectedness of us all and that we in essence don’t exist as our individual egoic ideas of “I"&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>and&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"The very fact that so many mainstream outlets are covering this from the standpoint of how ‘weird’ his latest statements are shows us how little thought we put into asking big questions in life in the mainstream. Instead we are asked to play into the many distractions and trivial bits of content that don’t challenge us to think deeper, understand who we are, or move beyond suffering — all of which Jim’s latest interviews explore."</i>]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>WHAT ABOUT THE OPPOSITE MESSAGES WHICH PERSONS SHOULD BE LISTENING FOR AND AWAKE TO?&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for those on the opposite end of the non-duality / duality spectrum who are trapped in duality and who are fomenting hatred and separation and contributing to the ever-expanding body of lies being broadcast into the ether, consider:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All of the wise non-dual teachers and all of the wise non-dual writers and all of the wise conductors of non-duality-based satsanga during the last 1000 years will have a minimal influence when it comes to inspiring persons to look for a means by which they can be freed from the tendency among the masses to accept lies as truth; to accept fiction as fact; and to allow lies and fiction to be accepted as "real" and thereafter drive them to behave in ways which exhibit the symptoms of the Ultimate Sickness which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The masses have actually normalized all of that. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No, the most effective "argument" for realizing (that is, per Maharaj, <b>being freed of ignorance</b>) is never the one heard as the universal consciousness speaks via some wise sage (whom most among the masses will never encounter) but is the message delivered by the mad rantings and ravings of the narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths who are presently acting out on their international stages.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the angry, non-realized masses, those leaders adumbrating their anger and manipulating them by playing to their fury can seem to those masses to be as desirable and delightful as the sweetest dessert ever consumed; but as the case is with all immature and childish persons, having too much of the sweetest dessert can bring on pain instead of pleasure.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When the persons in any given nation OD on anger and rage and the always-accompanying "ignorance and stupidity and insanity", then "The Pendulum of Things Desired by a Newly-Formed Majority" will eventually swing in the opposite direction as more and more disappointed followers drag themselves through another day, frustrated and depressed and suffering from a rant-and-rave hangover which leads a different majority to seek a break.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Why does that pendulum forever swing? Because throughout human history, every promised change ever guaranteed by religious and spiritual and business and political leaders has proved to be a disappointing lie, producing false hope but no real change. That which is being sought for by some, or longed for by many, must come from within, not from without.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MU2QPahANzQ/Wc5Xb2sKuHI/AAAAAAAACx0/fL6O7al05YgnTBMNREOTpGgFRT9O9GapACLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MU2QPahANzQ/Wc5Xb2sKuHI/AAAAAAAACx0/fL6O7al05YgnTBMNREOTpGgFRT9O9GapACLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you. </div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_29.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-1235058519056516976Thu, 28 Sep 2017 16:28:00 +00002017-09-28T12:45:44.878-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Twenty<h3>TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you watched the Lennon / Ono video of <i>Imagine </i>yesterday, you saw a visual metaphor of the shifts which can come if the non-dual understanding manifests. The video and the lyrics can be regarded as being, metaphorically, "representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract" such as:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">moving out of the fog that one has been in;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">entering the darkness but then slowly taking the steps which allow the light to come in;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">shifting from a condition in which one is not able to see clearly because of the darkness to being able to see all as it truly is because of the light;&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">leaving "The World of the Miasma" behind and "going home."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj was asked, "How does a <i>gnani</i> feel as an old man?" He replied:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As he gets older he grows more and more happy and peaceful. After all, he is going home."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the video, going home was not enough. The couple had ventured out into "the world," a world in which the masses are driven by the thousands of beliefs which are stored in their fiction-filled minds.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Away from home, the couple is surrounded in fog, in the same kind of near-universal miasma which blocks almost all humans from being able to see truth clearly, rendering them incapable of differentiating between true and false.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Out in the fog, one is walking about on a planet where the masses are suffering from the Ultimate Sickness and are trapped in its symptoms (which Maharaj identified as "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity"). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Out in the fog, the masses are subsumed in a miasma which drives persons to accept the bogus information passed on via programming, conditioning, etc. and to, therefore, accept unquestioningly the beliefs . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that there's a heaven&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that there's a hell&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that imaginary lines drawn by humans have really created different countries&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that all kinds of flags in supposedly different countries are to be revered</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that there are an infinite number of things / people that need to be killed&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that that are an infinite number of things that people should be willing to die for&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that religion actually creates peace and fosters love&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that possessions are to be accumulated and are worth fighting over and dying for&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that greed is normal&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that those who are in poverty and are therefore hungry should just go get a job&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">that people who talk about "The Oneness" are failing to see the so-called reality of "the vast multiplicities" and "the obvious differences" and the scarcity of "those who are really better" as opposed to the high incidence of "those who are worse."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The relative problem with living in a miasma is that an "an oppressive and unpleasant atmosphere will emanate from it" and will then contaminate all that is around it.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Miasmas will always eventually generate a fetor. Miasmas will always produce a stench. Miasmas will always reek and will always cause everything nearby to reek as well.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Live a life that is marked by being trapped inside the miasma and that life will stink and will reek, and as those with a life that stinks and reeks move about, they spread their stink and their stench and will think and talk and behave in a way that is disgusting, that is most unpleasant, and which passes on their stench to all around them.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A man who said that he "was raised in the heartland of the U.S." had been so trapped in the "American" brand of xenophobia that he volunteered to go to Vietnam in the 60's to "help in the fight with the communist enemies of America there who wanted to spread their beliefs around the globe and who would eventually take us over the U.S. if we did not defend ourselves."<br /><br />He said, "I bought into another bit of nonsense that has long been popular with our leaders: 'Better to fight them there now than have to fight them here later'."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The man - who now considers himself to be "progressive" - admitted, "My Iowa upbringing made me love our flag and our country and our military above all else." He said, "I really did buy into the programming that convinced me that we were the greatest country on earth and that we had not only the right but also the obligation to go around the globe and give what we had to others so they would be just like us."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That led him to abandon his medical practice in the states and to join those who had invaded a land that was 8500 miles away and to use his medical skills "to treat our soldiers and get them back into the fight as soon as possible." He shared the details of his experience which he now sees as a metaphor for his "journey to realization."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He explained that during two tours of duty, he saw few cases of dry gangrene - which can develop over the course of months - but many cases of&nbsp; wet gangrene which can develop quickly, sometimes in a few hours. There were cases of young men who were injured but were not transported out of a jungle quickly because U.S. forces were under heavy fire. Helicopters could not land and pick up the wounded and they could not be carried out on foot, either.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In some of those cases, the delay was so long that wet gangrene had set in, followed by gas gangrene. That necessitated the amputation of limbs. Such was the case with one nineteen-year-old whose right arm had been severely damaged. It was days before the young man finally reached the field hospital where the doctor was working, so the infection in the wounded arm and the loss of a supply of oxygen-rich blood led to a progression from wet gangrene to gas gangrene.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Had the initial trauma destroyed an artery, the fellow would have bled out almost immediately. That did not happen, but the negative effects continued to progress slowly.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When the doctor cut away the bandages to inspect the wound, he became nauseous from the foul-smelling odor being emitted from the wound. He said that first there was a sweet-sour smell that invaded his nostrils, and then a scent that was not unlike the rotten odor he smelled as a child when his family returned home from a vacation, only to find that the power to the refrigerator / freezer had gone out and that the meat in the freezer had first thawed and then decayed, after which the rotten fluids had seeped out pass the door's gasket and pooled on the kitchen floor.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The odor that day in the field hospital triggered a gag reflex as it took him back to the stench in the kitchen as a child. Still, to this day, he said that when something triggers a reminder of that day when the wounded lad was brought into the hospital, the doctor can <i>literally</i> smell once more the offensive odor which came from the dead flesh in that soldier's right arm.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The doctor said he knew immediately that he was going to have remove the entire arm up the shoulder if the fellow was to have any chance of survival, so he performed the amputation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later, the patient developed a fever the doctor so the doc said that he had to go back in and clean the wound as well as find a still-bleeding vessel and address that issue. Eventually, after several more procedures, the patient stabilized.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, after having been exposed to non-dual pointers for years, the doctor said he sees not only how futile "American's Vietnam Experience" was but also sees how vile it was and how contemptible the arrogance was which drove U.S. political and business leaders to send this nation's youth off to a place on the other side of the globe to kill others that neither could nor would have ever harmed anyone on the U.S. mainland.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, he shared how his own "non-dual journey" had paralleled the amputating of that arm nearly fifty years ago: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Growing up under the influence of that "heartland programming and conditioning" led him to develop a life-threatening injury which was going to kill him, but the injury had nothing to do with anything physical. His was an injury of the mind.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like the flesh that had died on that soldier's arm, the doctor said, "I saw that what they had put into me was rotting me away from the inside and was going to have fatal consequences if it was not removed. I had lost my ability to feel. I was rendered dull and numb. I was living in total darkness while thinking I was in the light and believing that I was smarter, wiser, stronger, and better than most other people.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I had thought I was better than others merely by having been born in one particular country. And I had thought I was better than most people in the country because I was born in a particular region where the people were more patriotic, where we were more loyal to the country and its values, and where the people there were all morally superior to the liberals living on the coasts in their ivory tower, fantasy world. I had thought I was the one in touch with reality and that others were all a bunch of naive, idealistic, romantic fantasists, and that was my first impression of you, too."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Eventually," he continued, "I went ahead and read some of your writings anyway and I began to see that I had been an actor on the stage of the 'Theater of the Lie' that you write about. I came to see I was living a lie and had been doing that since early childhood. I came to see that my life was like that useless arm on the kid who had been brought in and laid out on my operating table decades ago:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was useless. It was stinking. It was foul."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He then said, "I finally saw that my entire life was like that arm. There was some things that had become attached to me. I wanted them. I valued them. But they were killing me. They were, as you've pointed out, my beliefs. I did not want to give them up any more than that kid wanted to give up his right arm. But he finally understood that he either had to sacrifice his arm or his life. He understood that he could not go on living in the condition he was in. He finally said, 'Cut it off,' and that's what I had to say about everything that they had attached to me and everything that I had attached to me."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How to be free of the stench? In the Lennon / Ono video, the invitation is to imagine - or consider - the possibility that everything you have ever been told or heard or read and now believe to be the absolute ("gospel") truth is a lie.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See the insanity of not being able to differentiate the true from the false.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See the insanity of walking about in a fog, in the darkness, in the miasma.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See the insanity of being blind but believing that you can see.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See the insanity of being in the dark while believing that you are in the light.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of those trapped in what he called their "kindergarten-level spirituality," Maharaj said:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They are functioning under the delusion that they are standing in the full light of the noonday sun when, in fact, they are actually only standing in the dull light of dawn."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lennon and Ono, via<i> Imagine'</i>s non-dual lyrics, invite you to walk out of the fog, to go home, to see that even at home you can still be trapped in darkness, and to open the blinds and allow the light to come in and remove the darkness.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">See? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hw8efAq-d7Y/Wc0dmyutHMI/AAAAAAAACxk/_XRa5oGkKLg-F7q0G7JxJfj7LCAYqdp6gCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hw8efAq-d7Y/Wc0dmyutHMI/AAAAAAAACxk/_XRa5oGkKLg-F7q0G7JxJfj7LCAYqdp6gCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: orange;">To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_28.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-3416318910408446362Wed, 27 Sep 2017 14:39:00 +00002017-09-27T10:39:49.499-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Nineteen<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div>Next,<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;From Philosophers And Sages And Seers Of Truth:</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Miscellaneous Quotations And Pointers That Are Relevant To Advaitins / Non-Dualists&nbsp;</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">excerpted from the book <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Throughout the ages, there have been those who have been in conscious contact with the inner guru / the inner resource which provided them direct access to a quasi-intuitive sense of the Oneness and a quasi-instinctive awareness of the non-dual understanding.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some that will be quoted in the coming days had heard of non-duality via outer sources; some had never heard of non-duality by name but were in contact with the inner guru which allowed them to be aware.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You are invited to read the quotes and then sit in the silence and contemplate the pointers which touch on a host on non-dual topics:&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Plato&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the of the light."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>E. Bayda&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"It is only in our minds we seem trapped - in Reality we are utterly free."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Edward Thomas</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">“And heavy is the tread of the living, but the dead returning lightly dance.”</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>St. Francis of Assisi&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"What you are looking for is what is looking."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Desiderius Erasmus&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"A nail is driven out by another nail."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Fools are without number."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;"It's the generally accepted privilege of theologians to stretch the heavens, that is the Scriptures, like tanners with a hide."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart this life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"To know nothing is the happiest life."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don't know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Albert Einstein&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">“A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"A human being is part of the whole called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;John Lennon&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"There's nothing you can know that isn't known." </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!"</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">and lyrics by&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>John Lennon and Yoko Ono&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>IMAGINE&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Imagine there's no heaven&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">It's easy if you try&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">No hell below us&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Above us only sky&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Imagine all the people&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Living for today. . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Imagine there's no countries&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">It isn't hard to do&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Nothing to kill or die for&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">And no religion too&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Imagine all the people</div><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;Living life in peace. . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Imagine no possessions&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">I wonder if you can&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">No need for greed or hunger&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">A brotherhood of man&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Imagine all the people&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Sharing all the world. . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">You may say I'm a dreamer&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">But I'm not the only one&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">I hope someday you'll join us&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;">And the world will live as one&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For those that would like to relax for a few moments longer, you are invited to listen to Lennon singing the lyrics of their non-duality-based song:&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YkgkThdzX-8" width="560"></iframe></div><br />To be continued.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-inw69D75TGQ/Wcu3vulNeEI/AAAAAAAACxU/8kIKiG__hXYbRCxrXBVdov9mpQZ1tWoGwCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-inw69D75TGQ/Wcu3vulNeEI/AAAAAAAACxU/8kIKiG__hXYbRCxrXBVdov9mpQZ1tWoGwCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_27.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-4706660908034240187Tue, 26 Sep 2017 13:35:00 +00002017-09-26T09:35:36.921-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Eighteen<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp; </h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>&nbsp;"The very idea 'I am self-realised' [or 'I am Self-Realised'] is a mistake. There is no 'I am this,' 'I am that' in the Natural State."&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;">--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"ABIDING NATURALLY, IN THE NISARGA FASHION"</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A life lived . . . in full awareness is by itself Nisarga Yoga."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly. The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is a state beyond forgetting and not forgetting - the natural state."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Go beyond, back to your normal, natural state."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What You Are, You already Are. By knowing what You are not, You are free of it and remain in Your Own Natural State. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As long as your urge for truth affects your daily life, all is well with you. Live your life without hurting anybody. Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will take you speedily to your goal. This is what I call Nisarga Yoga - the Natural Yoga. It is the art of living in peace and harmony, in friendliness and love. The fruit of it is happiness, uncaused and endless."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When your attention is off a thing and not yet fixed on another, in the interval you are pure being. When, through the practice of discrimination and detachment (viveka-vairagya), you lose sight of sensory and mental states, pure being emerges as the natural state."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The jnani is afraid of nothing, but he pities the man who is afraid. After all, to be born, to live and to die is natural. To be afraid is not. To the event, of course, attention is given."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I take my stand in the original state where I was not aware that I am.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questioner: "Then, how do you know you are in the supreme state?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "Because I am in it. It is the only natural state."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "Deal with the consciousness only . . . get to know it thoroughly. That is all that can be done. Later on, everything happens spontaneously; doership goes. Know the inside-out of consciousness and recognize it as useless; it is a fraud."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q: "Are you now in the perfect state?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M: "Perfection is a state of the mind, when it is pure. I am beyond the mind, whatever its state, pure or impure. Awareness is my nature; ultimately I am beyond being and non-being."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Live "just as you wake up spontaneously and fall asleep spontaneously. Don't make any effort."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q: "Can I avoid this protracted battle with my mind?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M: "Yes, you can. Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing -- as life brings. This also is a way."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Bliss is more of the nature of a great peace."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Leave the mind alone. Stand aware and unconcerned and you will realise that to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go, is an aspect of your real nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All you need is to keep quietly alert, enquiring into the real nature of yourself. This is the only way to peace."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"No effort is necessary; in fact, effort itself is a hindrance. It is intuitive understanding." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Just live your life as it comes, but alertly, watchfully, allowing everything to happen as it happens, doing the natural things the natural way, suffering, rejoicing - as life brings. What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Turn away from your desires and fears and from the thoughts they create . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The state in which no desire arises is the Natural State."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You will recognise that you have returned to your natural state by a complete absence of all desire and fear."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All will happen by itself. You need not do anything, only don't prevent it."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You need not seek anything; all will come to you most naturally and effortlessly."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Spontaneity became a way of life, the real became natural, and the natural became real."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The result of Nisarga / Natural abidance is "infinite affection and Love . . . radiating in all directions, embracing all, making all interesting and beautiful . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The self by its nature knows itself only."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Love is a state of being. Sex is energy. Love is wise. Sex is blind. Once the true nature of Love and sex is understood, there will be no conflict or confusion."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When one is fully matured, realisation is explosive. It takes place spontaneously, or at the slightest hint. The quick is not better than the slow. Slow ripening and rapid flowering alternate. Both are natural . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In complete obedience to nature there is no effort."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"So far your life was dark and restless (tamas and rajas). Attention, alertness, awareness, clarity, liveliness, vitality, are all manifestations of integrity, oneness with your true nature (sattva)."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Sattva [basically, truth and peacefulness and balance] is the faithful servant of the self; ever attentive and obedient."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Do I want anything from you. I wish you well -- such is my nature." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As a whole the world does not need saving. Man makes mistakes and creates sorrow; when it enters the field of awareness, the consciousness of a jnani, it is set right. Such is his nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The obstacles to the clear perception of one's true being are desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It is the pleasure-pain motivation that stands in the way. The very freedom from all motivation, the state in which no desire arises is the natural state."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The nature of the self is pure awareness, pure witnessing, unaffected by the presence or absence of knowledge or liking." [Thus, the "True Self" or "Real Self" is nothing more than Pure Witnessing, and that can only <i>be</i> during the manifestation. Pre-manifestation and post-manifestation, there is no self or Self of any kind.]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Jnanis are not made, they realise themselves as such, when they return to their source, their real nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[The jnani] "is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Love and compassion are his very nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The jnani shows no tendency to proclaim himself to be a jnani. He considers himself to be perfectly normal, true to his real nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Proclaiming oneself to be an omnipotent and omniscient deity is a clear sign of ignorance."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The very nature of the self is love."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Your very nature has the infinite capacity to enjoy."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nature is one - Reality is one."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Do nothing. Just be. In being all happens naturally."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What you call realisation is a natural thing. When you are ready, your guru will be waiting."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The harmonised people may be called natural, ruled by law, while the disintegrated are chaotic and subject to accidents."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Realize that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels, that disturbs."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"No particular thought can be [the] natural state, only silence."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What you take to be the 'I' in the 'I am' is not you. To know that you are is natural, to know what you are is the result of much investigation."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You need to return to the state in which I am -- your natural state. Anything else you may think of is an illusion and an obstacle."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just witnessing is natural . . . ." [There is no deer or bird or fish or any other non-human life-form which is driven to abandon the witnessing-only state. Here in this neighborhood, the deer watch humans who overslept racing off in the morning to earn money to buy things they do not need; they watch humans rear-ending each others' cars because they were texting rather than witnessing what was going on in the traffic around them; they witness some humans ignoring the leash laws and they witness some of those un-leashed dogs attaching other people and other dogs; they watch children crying when one of those un-leashed dogs kills the childrens' pet cats. They witness all of those people involved loading into their cars and leaving the area to go to court to try to settle before a judge the issues with their pets / their dead pets. The deer are not driven by ideologies or xenophobia or racial hatred to march in the streets with tiki torches and with Nazi flags and with white supremacist flags and with rebel flags left over from a war which supposedly ended 150 years ago - but did not - and then drive a car at break-neck speed (literally) and kill someone with different beliefs and injure scores of others with different beliefs. They merely witness, and what they witness without knowing it are (to use Maharaj's words) the members of a species driven by "ignorance, stupidity, and insanity" as they go and do and zoom about and generate levels of noise that nature never saw for billions of years. Much chaos and disharmony and misery and suffering could be eliminated among humans via more use of the all-natural process of . . . <i>just witnessing</i>.] So . . .&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally without any interference on your part." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Non-identification, when natural and spontaneous, is liberation."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This freedom from attachment does not come with practice; it is natural when one knows one's true being."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Deepen and broaden your awareness of yourself and all the blessings will flow. You need not seek anything, all will come to you most naturally and effortlessly."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . What prevents the insight into one's true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Play, for example, is natural and man is the most playful animal in existence."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The ending of the self with its desires and fears enables you to return to your real nature, the source of all happiness and peace."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When more people come to know their real nature, their influence, however subtle, will prevail and the world's emotional atmosphere will sweeten up."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Contemplate life as infinite, undivided, ever present, ever active, until you realise yourself as one with it. It is not even very difficult, for you will be returning only to your own natural condition."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known; and yet you recognise it at once as your own nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The very idea 'I am self-realised' [or 'I am Self-Realized'] is a mistake. There is no 'I am this'. 'I am that' in the Natural State."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The darkness you see is but the shadow of the tiny speck. Get rid of it and come back to your natural state."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Take note of the peculiar nature of pure awareness, its natural self-identity, without the least trace of self-consciousness, and go to the root of it and you will soon realise that awareness is your true nature and nothing you may be aware of, you can call your own."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Your real nature is not like what you appear to be. Give up the idea of being a person, that is all."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Self-surrender is the surrender of all self-concern. It cannot be done, it happens when you realise your true nature."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Happiness is our real nature and we shall never rest until we find it."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To believe that you depend on things and people for happiness is due to ignorance of your true nature; to know that you need nothing to be happy, except self-knowledge, is wisdom."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"From the awareness of the unreal to the awareness of your real nature there is a chasm which you will easily cross, once you have mastered the art of pure awareness."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questioner: "Emptiness and nothingness -- how dreadful!"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "You face it most cheerfully, when you go to sleep! Find out for yourself the state of wakeful sleep and you will find it quite in harmony with your real nature."&nbsp;</div><br />"Realise once for all that neither your body nor your mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself and stand alone in your true nature beyond consciousness and unconsciousness. No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding."<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Realise that your true nature is that of pure light only, and both the perceived and the perceiver come and go together."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"For reality to be, the ideas of <b><i>'me'</i></b> and <b><i>'mine'</i></b> must go. [<i>Recall that Grandmother's Cherokee language did not contain either word</i>.] They will go if you let them. Then your normal natural state reappears, in which you are neither the body nor the mind, neither the 'me’ nor the 'mine', but in a different state of being altogether. It is pure awareness of being, without being this or that, without any self-identification with anything in particular or anything in general. In that pure light of consciousness there is nothing, not even the idea of nothing. There is only light."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is nothing to practise. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EFMa5OB77rY/WcpSMTO30uI/AAAAAAAACxA/npjX9AYaPU0rEnnEDpQTII2obQgLanuPQCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EFMa5OB77rY/WcpSMTO30uI/AAAAAAAACxA/npjX9AYaPU0rEnnEDpQTII2obQgLanuPQCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_26.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-1067550557155213290Fri, 22 Sep 2017 12:54:00 +00002017-09-22T09:05:42.392-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Seventeen<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE ASSUMPTION OF THE ROLE OF EITHER 'THE SPIRITUAL GIANT' OR 'THE SUPER RELIGIOUS ONE'"&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[<i>NOTE TO READERS:&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Previously it was noted that Maharaj advised seekers to&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . go back, reverse, to the source"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and to</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"follow the same path by which you came."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are seven steps on that "reverse path," and it is at the third step that religious and or spiritual knowledge is sought and where religious and spiritual identities are assumed.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(More accurately, in most cases, religious roles are set in place during the earliest years of each child's life; then those are unquestioningly clung to throughout adulthood. According to research, 97% of the persons on the planet are assigned a religious role early on. That false identity is augmented by, or replaced with, another false identity - namely, a spiritual role, which soon self-upgrades itself to the role of "The Spiritual Giant" - which, granted, must be played for a time by most on "the path")</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, that step must be transitioned if seekers are to complete the remainder of the "journey" to what Maharaj called "Full Realization" (i.e., to full freedom from a belief in any and all "learned ignorance"). Such is the requirement if the shift to total freedom from personality and persona-assumption and new-identity-adoption is to happen.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For those who are willing to consider Maharaj's later teachings on the subject of spirituality, he offered during his last years a reassessment of the bhakti-influenced talks in the book <b>I AM THAT</b> and recommended to seekers that they stop reading those talks and listen instead to his later, psychology-based pointers:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today, emphasizing different aspects."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What he offered later differed considerably from much of the content of his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in <b>I AM THAT</b> will take you to the midpoint of "the path" but that his final talks point the way to the actual end of "the path."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As his understanding evolved, his talks evolved; thus, in the end, he stopped talking about dogma and spirituality and offered pointers based in psychological understandings which focused on addressing what he came to see as the key elements of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the programming-and-conditioning-blocked consciousness and the resultant warped mind.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To look back over his sharings objectively, one can see that his preferred teaching method and his preferred yoga varied over the decades as his focus shifted from an assorted combination of guru-bhakti yoga to bhakti yoga to jnana yoga to nisarga yoga.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the end, the earlier shades of nisarga yoga began to blossom fully and singularly, and he became more direct and less concerned with bhakti yoga's religious and spiritual influences and more focused on inviting seekers to abide naturally rather than supernaturally / spiritually.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His pointers below are likely only for those that are willing to consider what he meant when he said "I am speaking differently today" and are only for seekers that are interested in understanding those "different aspects" as he offered pointers that could free seekers who were fixated at the midpoint of the "journey" and allow them to move on to the end of "the path."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The following quotes / pointers invited visitors to move beyond the third step of seven steps on his version of "the path"; to abandon all roles, including religious and / or spiritual roles; to complete the "journey" to what he called "full realization"; and then to abide naturally.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questioner: "The scriptures say that we have our karma and our sins and that is why we are here."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: "That is for the ignorant masses. One who has realized . . . , for him these stories are of no use."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Forget spirituality."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Follow your "normal inclinations."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Just give up spirituality."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I do not follow the spirituality of the masses."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am not addicted to self-descriptions [such as] 'soham' and [such as] 'brahmasmi'."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[Note: "Soham" means, "I myself" or "It is I" or "He is I". "Brahmasmi" means, "I am Brahman" or "I am the Supreme" or "I am God" or "I am the Infinite Supreme Soul" or "I am part of the Brahman" - that being an implication of duality in itself.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Subsequent to that 'I Am' and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call 'spiritual seeking', or 'spiritual knowledge'. This is nonsense."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I appeal to you with my folded hands: don't get into this spirituality."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If [persons] come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness ‘I am’ has appeared—there is no reason, no cause.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Those who have apperceived my knowledge will not fall prey to the logic or spirituality expounded by others."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q.: "I want to live a good life, a holy life. What am I to do?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M: "Go home; take charge of your father's business; look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you. Be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue. Live silently."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q.: "So many saints and mystics lived and died. They did not change my world."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: "How could they? Your world is not theirs, nor is theirs yours."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality, [but] finally I lost that love of 'the Self' also. I have no more love for 'the Self'."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Do your normal duties." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Just give up spirituality."<br /><br />To the contrary, those spreading all sorts of duality-based beliefs will also be the ones encouraging persons to assume and play a host of false identities to include two in particular which they take to be "The Two <i>Really</i> Good Roles": "The Super Religious One" and "The Spiritual Giant."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZ6UqCh3lDU/WcUDo_K1pdI/AAAAAAAACww/PobnS8asbDEylG0c1mtweHtKdmtv4BBiwCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZ6UqCh3lDU/WcUDo_K1pdI/AAAAAAAACww/PobnS8asbDEylG0c1mtweHtKdmtv4BBiwCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_22.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-2259089082682062081Thu, 21 Sep 2017 13:04:00 +00002017-09-21T09:16:01.617-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Sixteen<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS&nbsp;</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"THE 'JOURNEY'" and "MARKERS ALONG 'THE PATH'" and "ACCEPTING ONLY WISDOM-BASED GUIDANCE"&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"THE 'JOURNEY'"&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . You should go back, reverse, to the source.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Follow the same path by which you came.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no question of elevating to a higher level. Here it is only a question of understanding."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is the place where the intellect gets annihilated."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no creation so there is no 'Creator'" and "God did not create man; man dreamed up God(s)" and " . . . You have invented a God."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[Thus, because there is no "heaven" - or anywhere else where 'a Creator' supposedly lives - "the journey"<i> has nothing to do with</i> "trying to get to Heaven, to Valhalla, to Paradise,&nbsp; to Nirvana, or "being reincarnated into a higher form" and <i>has nothing to do with</i> avoiding "Hell," "being reincarnated into a lower form," etc. "The journey" has everything to do with "being freed of all learned ignorance."] </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"MARKERS ALONG 'THE PATH'"&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you are not, can 'others' be . . . ?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is no progress."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Both experience and experiencer will disappear."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There are so many who take the dawn for the noon, a momentary experience for full realisation . . . . "&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I am stabilized. There is no going into samadhi, or coming down from samadhi. That is over.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“When you are thoroughly knowledgeable, you will come to the conclusion that this beingness is also an illusion.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The nearer you get to the truth, the more you lose interest in worldly affairs. Such a one will not have any interest in the world, but will act like an ordinary person.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty. The seeker must disappear."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“You have some experiences and you try to benefit from them, but remember that whatever is going to be of use to you ultimately is going to harm you. Wherever there is use, there is also dis-use in this world of duality. Whatever you like is going to create harm for you. Whatever you like most is, in the end, going to be most harmful for you.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"ACCEPTING ONLY WISDOM-BASED GUIDANCE"&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you seek with the big name teachers, you will get what you deserve" [or, as expressed here, "you will never get what you seek"]. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You, with your wisdom, are stuck here; you are sticking to certain concepts. If you had no concepts, why should you come here? You study only those concepts which arise from within you. Those concepts which you do not like will not occur to you."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Do not consult others about the advice I have given to them. Abide in what I have told only you. Kill the curiosity to know what others are told; to each seeker the appropriate advice is given."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The effect of these talks is that you will stabilize in the very source from which the words sprout. Abiding in the dynamic, manifest consciousness is abiding in the words of the Guru. The meaning of the mantra I have given you is that you are the manifest, dynamic principle, not the body. When you abide in that, you become that."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only my own experience.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and . . . you pray to that God for something good to happen to you."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Consciousness opens the gate for you to transcend consciousness. There are two aspects; one is conceptual, dynamic consciousness which is full of concepts, and the other is transcendent consciousness. Even the concept 'I Am' is not there. Conceptual, qualitative Brahman, the one that is full of concepts and is qualitative, is the outcome of the functioning body."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Those who know only scriptures know nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In the course of your study of spirituality, you have acquired many concepts and you call that 'knowledge'. Throw out your concepts."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Whatever you think of as 'spiritual knowledge' was gained in the realm of consciousness; such knowledge is merely a burden upon your head and it is going to add more misery. It is nothing more than spiritual jargon."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Spiritual knowledge should not be studied."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Because we're looking at non-duality pointers but also being alert to duality-based thoughts and words and actions, consider again this pointer from Maharaj:&nbsp;</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"If you are not, can 'others' be . . . ?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been noted that a major contributor to arrogance and hatred is the prevalence among the masses of the concept of "the other."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If early humans were settled on the veldt and "others" approached who were interested in a group's hunting or foraging territory or in their makeshift housing or in their water source or in their tools and clothing and possessions or in their women, those "others" may have triggered emotions such as fright and then defensiveness and anger and even hatred.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have been exceptions. When the first Europeans arrived in what would eventually be called "America," the indigenous peoples had no concept or vocabulary involving the concept of "the other" or "others," so they welcomed the white-skinned travelers in spite of the fact that they "looked different."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The native population taught the newcomers how to grow crops in a sometimes hostile, Northeast environment; how to hunt and how to use all of the parts of a deer to provide food; how to make clothes out of available materials; how to make furniture; how to make tools, etc. They taught them which berries were edible and which berries were poisonous.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They gave them the survival skills needed to make it though the first winter and into spring. And what did the Europeans do after all that? They enslaved the young males, killed the remaining native inhabitants, and stole everything they had.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, they introduced for the first time on this continent the concepts of "colonizing" and "xenophobia" and "different from" and "better than" and "the other" and "eugenics" and "the superior race" and "white supremacy" and "the one true religion" and "conquest" and "genocide" and "plundering and pillaging" and "killing and destruction for the sake of killing and destroying."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The non-dual seekers that become fully realized (that is, per Maharaj, become "totally freed of all belief in learned ignorance") will be equally tuned in to talk about the Oneness while also remaining alert to talk about "the other," and they will accept the messages of Oneness when the pure, universal consciousness speaks while readily rejecting all messages about "separation" and "different-from-ment" and "better-than-ment" and "the other" and while also moving away from the carriers of messages rooted in the Sickness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you live for several decades and then reflect, you may see what came to be seen here:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you accept it, unimaginable levels of misery and suffering can be generated - relatively speaking - by those who think they are far better than they really are and who decide that you are far worst than you really are.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj shall have the final non-dual words on this today:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: "You are not different from 'others'."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wdeBAi6xqSo/WcO1Hz07MEI/AAAAAAAACwg/MwXsFu55xDYV6X2apn3FGe8iC4rsRYDEACLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wdeBAi6xqSo/WcO1Hz07MEI/AAAAAAAACwg/MwXsFu55xDYV6X2apn3FGe8iC4rsRYDEACLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_21.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-4604406617030216273Wed, 20 Sep 2017 12:41:00 +00002017-09-21T09:14:17.515-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Fifteen<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS </h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>[See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj]&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php"><b>QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more </b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"RELATIVE PROBLEMS" and "SOLUTIONS"&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Don’t you see that all your problems are your body’s problems - food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, name, fame, security, survival? All these lose their meaning the moment you realise that you may not be a mere body."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is selfishness, due to a self-identification with the body, that is the main problem and the cause of all other problems."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The ultimate state . . . is that state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All your problems arise because you have defined and therefore limited yourself. When you do not think yourself to be this or that, all conflict ceases. Any attempt to do something about your problems is bound to fail, for what is caused by desire can be undone only in freedom from desire. You have enclosed yourself in time and space, squeezed yourself into the span of a lifetime and the volume of a body and thus created the innumerable conflicts of life and death, pleasure and pain, hope and fear. You cannot be rid of problems without abandoning illusions."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In the waking state all these problems arise, for such is its nature. But, you are not always in that state. What good can you do in a state into which you fall and from which you emerge, helplessly?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A man who moves with the earth will necessarily experience days and nights. He who stays with the sun will know no darkness. My world is not yours. As I see it, you all are on a stage performing. There is no reality about your comings and goings. And your problems are so unreal!"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Centuries roll on, but the human problem does not change - the problem of suffering and the ending of suffering."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This 'I Amness' is the very source of all misery."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Witnessing is natural and no problem. The problem is excessive interest, leading to self-identification. Whatever you are engrossed in you take to be real."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What problems can there be which the mind did not create?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Life and death do not create problems; pains and pleasures come and go, experienced and forgotten. It is memory and anticipation that create problems of attainment or avoidance, coloured by like and dislike. Truth and Love are man's real nature and . . . the heart is the means of its expression."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Without the mind there will be no problems."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have no personal problems. But the world is full of living beings whose lives are squeezed between fear and craving. They are like cattle driven to the slaughter house, jumping and frisking, carefree and happy, yet dead and skinned within an hour."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Between the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life, and gets stuck at the banks, that it becomes a problem."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What is wrong with a life which is free from problems? Personality is merely a reflection of the real. Why should not the reflection be true to the original as a matter of course, automatically? Need the person have any designs of its own? The life of which it is an expression will guide it. Once you realise that the person is merely a shadow of the reality, but not reality itself, you cease to fret and worry. You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The problem is universal - suffering and the ending of suffering. The cause of suffering is dependence and independence is the remedy."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Just realise that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To solve a problem you must trace it to its source. Only in the dissolution of the problem in the universal solvents of enquiry and dispassion, can its right solution be found."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Have your being outside this body of birth and death and all your problems will be solved. They exist because you believe yourself born to die. Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All your problems arise because you have defined and therefore limited yourself. When you do not think yourself to be this or that, all conflict ceases. Any attempt to do something about your problems is bound to fail, for what is caused by desire can be undone only in freedom from desire."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The problem is not yours -- it is your mind's only. Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself that you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"While it lasts, the dream has temporary being. It is your desire to hold on to it, that creates the problem. Let go. Stop imagining that the dream is yours."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All waiting is futile. To depend on time to solve our problems is self-delusion. The future, left to itself merely repeats the past. Change can only happen now, never in the future."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The world problems were created by numberless people like you, each full of his own desires and fears. Who can free you of your past, personal and social, except yourself? And how will you do it unless you see the urgent need of your being first free of cravings born of illusion? How can you truly help, as long as you need help yourself?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Once the conviction: 'I am not the body' becomes so well grounded that he [the seeker] can no longer feel, think and act for and on behalf of the body, he will easily discover that he is the universal being, knowing, acting, that in him and through him the entire universe is real, conscious and active. This is the heart of the problem. Either you are body-conscious and a slave of circumstances, or you are the universal consciousness itself -- and in full control of every event."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"No problem is solved completely, but you can withdraw from it to a level on which it does not operate."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When you know your true being[ness], you have no problems. You may please your parents or not, marry or not, make a lot of money or not. It is all the same to you. Just act according to circumstances, yet in close touch with the facts, with the reality in every situation."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By contrast, those thoughts and words and actions are driven by duality find facts to be anathema and prefer to distort the truth in order to manipulate the masses (and that has long proved to be effective for those who would cotnrol).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the U.S., for example, when one spokesperson for the president was asked, "Why did he have his press secretary offer up a provable falsehood?" the reply was, "He was offering <i>alternative</i> facts." The reporter's response: "Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One symptom of the Ultimate Sickness has long been identified as an inability to differentiate between true and false, between fact and fiction, between the real and the non-real, between veracity and lies.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj advised: "See your world as it is, not as you imagine it to be."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He recommended "deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between the true and the false" and non-dual teachers have long suggested that seekers develop "the faculty of discrimination" (referring not to the development of biases and prejudices but to the development of the ability to differentiate and distinguish between the real and the not-real, between truth and lies.).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been pointed out here for 28 years that </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">be<span style="color: cyan;"><span style="color: cyan;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><b>lie</b></i></span></span></span>f&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">always includes</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: cyan;"><span style="color: cyan;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><b>lie</b></i></span></span></span>.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recognizing how widespread the Ultimate Sickness was - and is - among the masses, Maharaj invited seekers to "consider the familiar way of thinking and see its falseness"; such is the way it is when the masses abide.in the realm of duality. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the heart of the Sickness is the belief that learned ignorance is based in truth. So much for "the Knower" and "Knowing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thus Maharaj said:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All talk of <i>gnana</i> is a sign of ignorance. It is the mind that imagines that it does not know and then comes to know. Reality knows nothing of these contortions. Even the idea of God as the Creator is false. Do I owe my being to any other being? Because l am, all is."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued.&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7V4Bv7csHD4/WcJfIkyKPEI/AAAAAAAACwQ/sQ6cf0dST00ZxkeZoDXSlMKbriEv0VyWQCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7V4Bv7csHD4/WcJfIkyKPEI/AAAAAAAACwQ/sQ6cf0dST00ZxkeZoDXSlMKbriEv0VyWQCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.</div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/todays-considerations-see-offer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13349155.post-7508694884856138246Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:05:00 +00002017-09-19T09:05:54.350-04:00The Wisdom of Listening for BOTH Non-Dual AND Duality-Based Messages: FROM JESUS TO SHAKESPEARE TO MAHARAJ TO JOHN LENNON TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS WHO FOMENT HATRED AND SEPARATION, Part Fourteen<h3 style="text-align: center;">TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS </h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: cyan;"><b>"He [Maharaj] suggests that you return again and again to ‘I am’ until it is your only abode,&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: cyan;"><b>outside of which nothing exists . . . ."&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">-- Douwe Tiemersma&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: cyan;"><b>"Love says, 'I am everything'. Wisdom says, 'I am nothing'.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: cyan;"><b>Between the two my life flows."&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">-- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>See the offer following this post for details on how you can watch on a video of a retreat the discussion of all seven of the steps on the path used by Maharaj&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Many of those that visit this site regularly have reported on how impressed they are that they have crossed the paths on this site with a Christian minister that is not parroting the nonsense that is usually heard in religious venues but is actually sharing - via words rooted in the universal consciousness - a host of non-dual-loaded pointers to truth. He is, as was Maharaj, "the Unmanifested talking through the Manifest"; therefore, he offers a message which adumbrates the non-dual wisdom which is being shared by others that understand the message of Oneness (such as those being quoted in this series). When that happens via that minister, I share those non-duality-based "sermons."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Thus you are invited, if interested, to check out the free "Bonus" offer at the very end of this post to hear Jim Rigby discuss several topics which are central to the message offered here, including: the ill effects of the puerile teachings which religions pass along to children; the need for all persons to grow up and give up those childish beliefs; and - as adults - to understand the mature and developed (non-dual) message which Jesus the Advaitin was offering at the end of his manifestation.&nbsp;</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book <a href="http://www.floydhenderson.com/quotations-and-pointers.php">QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more.</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>THE NOTHINGNESS&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Everything is a play of ideas. In the state free from ideation (<i>nirvikalpa samadhi</i>) nothing is perceived."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is nothing I feel separate from; hence, I am all. No thing is me, so I am nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The world just sprouts into being out of nothing and returns to nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Is it not important to you to know whether you are a mere body, or something else? Or, maybe nothing at all?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Without the 'I am' there is nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Questioner: "If I am neither the body nor mind, how am I aware of them? How can I perceive something quite foreign to myself?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maharaj: " 'Nothing is me,' is the first step."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To know that 'nothing is' is true knowledge."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Be nothing, know nothing, have nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You must thoroughly understand what you are, or what you could be when nothing is. When nothing is, you still are" [<i>yet that "you" or so-called "You" involves nothing personal but is only energy-matter</i>].&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In fact, it would be enough to understand what you are not. You are nothing." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"What is that 'you'? It is all One, and when everything is, still you are; that is understandable, but when nothing is, how can I be?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: " . . . Gold is the basis for all gold jewellery. Abstract the name and shape from the jewellery and the gold becomes obvious. Be free of name and form and of the desires and fears they create, then what remains?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q.: "Nothingness."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: "Yes, the void remains."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"For the path of return (<i>nivritti</i>), naughting oneself is necessary. My stand I take where nothing (<i>paramakash</i>) is . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am not attached. I am nothing, and nothing is afraid of no thing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"On the contrary, everything is afraid of the nothing, for when a thing touches nothing, it becomes nothing. It is like a bottomless well: whatever falls into it, disappears."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"To be nothing, to have nothing, to keep nothing for oneself is the greatest gift . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The ultimate state is that state in which nothing exists, neither I, nor you, nor manifestation." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That which sees all this, and 'the nothing' too, is the inner teacher."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Verbal teaching has its use: it prepares the mind for voiding itself of its accumulations."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Once you have nothing, you have no problems."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When you hold on to nothing, no trouble arises."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q.: "Are you always in a state of samadhi?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: "Of course not. Samadhi is a state of mind, after all. I am beyond all experience, even of samadhi. I am the great devourer and destroyer: whatever I touch dissolves into void (<i>akash</i>)."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is the body. Inside the body appears to be an observer and outside - a world under observation. The observer and his observation as well as the world observed all appear and disappear together. Beyond it all, there is void. This void is one for all."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"First I thought I was the body; then I experienced that I was not the body but I was the consciousness; then I got the experience that this consciousness is not really me and that there is no form, no individuality, no nothing."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q.: "At the back of my mind there is a hum going on all the time. Numerous weak thoughts swarm and buzz and this shapeless cloud is always with me. Is it the same with you? What is at the back of your mind?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: "Where there is no mind, there is no back to it. I am all front . . . no back! The void speaks, the void remains."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">" . . . The immovable centre of the movable [is] the eternal witness of the transient. The centre is a point of void and the witness a point of pure awareness; they know themselves to be as nothing . . . ."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The 'Supreme Absolute' . . . is only a name for communication purposes.”&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Nothing is useful. When one subsides into [authenticity], nothing matters, because nothing is. When 'I' subsides, it's all awareness."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet . . .&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Awareness is not aware of its awareness."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">M.: "I used to create a world and populate it - now I don't do it anymore."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Q: "Where do you live, then?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">M: "In the void beyond being and non-being, beyond consciousness. This void is also fullness; do not pity me. It is like a man saying: 'I have done my work. Now, there is nothing left to do'."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, "I have the courage to be as nothing and to see 'the world' as it is: nothing"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">and&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Something becomes nothing. Nothing was, nothing remains."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am the Unmanifested talking through the Manifest. When the body, the mind, the vital breath drop off, nothing happens; only I, the Absolute [<i>energy</i>], prevail always."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am conscious and unconscious, both conscious and unconscious, neither conscious nor unconscious -- to all this I am witness -- but really there is no witness, because there is nothing to be a witness to. I am perfectly empty of all mental formations, void of mind -- yet fully aware."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The ultimate state . . . is that state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I am infinite peace and silence in which nothing appears."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Have you felt the all-embracing emptiness in which the universe swims like a cloud in the blue sky?"&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is the clinging to sensate life that binds you. If you could experience the inner void fully, the explosion into the totality would be near."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"In that pure light of consciousness there is nothing, not even the idea of nothing. There is only light." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The final answer is this: nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness; continuity as name and form is a mental formation only, easy to dispel." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for being alert to thoughts and words and actions rooted in duality and avoiding their influence, consider:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He understood, in fact, that . . .&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This is all a big hoax, a big fraud, created out of nothingness. Can you create something out of nothing?" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[He could as well have said, "Advertisers, religious 'experts' and 'spiritual giants,' and many present-day politicians with their sociopathic and psychopathic personality disorders are all using duality-based thoughts and words and actions to hide the truth and spread their dishonesty; the words coming out of those presently in charge of the federal government in the U.S. contain no truth, for they are frauds; and those unconsciously parroting duality-based beliefs rooted in religious dogma and / or spirituality are equally dishonest and fraudulent."]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To be continued.&nbsp; </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>NEW OFFER:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Watch an updated seven-hour streaming video of a retreat with Floyd Henderson which can be viewed by anyone with internet access. (In this video, all seven of the steps on "the path" as taught by Maharaj are explained and discussed.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LyA5-gbLsbE/WcENxOGAw2I/AAAAAAAACwA/C_NTSgpkd5UnQrKMXzPqFjouf6OmNyOxgCLcBGAs/s1600/retreatpic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="426" height="252" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LyA5-gbLsbE/WcENxOGAw2I/AAAAAAAACwA/C_NTSgpkd5UnQrKMXzPqFjouf6OmNyOxgCLcBGAs/s400/retreatpic.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>If interested, click the button below to pay the fee via PayPal. You will then receive an email which includes the link for you to view the private, unlisted video via an arrangement we have made with YouTube, Inc. You do not have to have a YouTube account to watch this privately streamed video.&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>(If you do not receive the link promptly, your computer or email provider may have high filter settings. Check your spam and trash folders because some providers automatically transfer emails containing links to those folders.)&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: orange;"><b>To access the seven-hour streaming video of a retreat and begin watching right away, click this "Buy Now" button:&nbsp;</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=single&amp;cl=55459&amp;i=1550333" target="ejejcsingle"><img alt="Buy Now" border="0" src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ej/x-click-butcc.gif" /></a>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please enter into the silence of contemplation.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[NOTE: The four most recent posts are below. You may access all of the posts in this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the five non-duality books made available without charge by Andy Gugar, Jr. (see “FREEBIES” above), you can now access nearly 3,200+ posts for any topics of interest to you.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"Bonus":&nbsp;</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who read the posts offered here regularly are aware of the following:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">**During my early years, I was offered the most fundamental, doctrinaire, nonsensical, fictional, mythical and false stories and tales and beliefs which were presented as "the not-to-ever-be-questioned truth." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[I would come to understand that "fundamental," when used rightly, is used to point to those who have "fun" "damning" anything that's "mental," or more accurately, rational and logical and sane.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was programmed and conditioned to never question anything I was told. I rebelled and did so anyway; that is, I questioned all of their nonsense and nonsensical teachings, often to the detriment of the well-being of my butt [because of a parent who believed in the Bible's Jewish-based dictate, "If you spare the rod, you will spoil the child"].</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For almost all persons in that religious venue - as in all other religious venues - beliefs were typically presented at a child level, were accepted at a child level, and were then clung to throughout adulthood and throughout an entire lifetime without ever moving beyond the childish beliefs which were passed on to them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I came to see that it is incumbent upon adults that would be free of learned ignorance (and then free, period) to question all that they were taught during their early years, all that was passed down from their parents (which had been passed down to them and never questioned), and everything else as well (including what they are now being told by many business people and advertisers, by religious or spiritual leaders, by political leaders, etc.)&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who read regularly these postings are also aware that, during the 70 years of manifestation here, there is only one religious minister I have met who has the courage and the understanding and the wisdom to see clearly where religions are in error, to see when religious messaging is flawed, and to offer truth-and-reality-based pointers instead.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That man is Rev. Jim Rigby.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(Is Jim "anti-religion"? Of course not. He is, however, opposed to the typical messages being shared nowadays which reinforce ignorant beliefs based in ancient myths and superstitions rather than messages which point to truth.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recently, he shared a 21-minute message in which his early experiences with traditional religious messaging - and his journey to be freed from the influence of that - paralleled exactly my early experiences with religion and the seeking of freedom from that - and all - learned ignorance.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For those with 21-minutes to spare, you are invited to listen to one of his recent messages which explains what he has come to understand about religion and what it could do were it to offer something quite different from what most religions offer nowadays.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If interested, <a href="http://www.staopen.org/sermons-and-news/sermons/?sermon_id=327"><b>click here</b></a>. </div>http://advaitavedantameditations.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-wisdom-of-listening-for-both-non_19.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Floyd Henderson)